Adam Lambert’s Jimmy Kimmel and NY Rockin Eve Appearances Have Been Canceled. Allison Iraheta Will Perform on Kimmel Instead
It looks like ABC is running scared! Or their lawyers are.
4th Update: So, Pink was censored too. Her performance was edited, viewers complained about the broadcast. Read about it HERE.
3rd Update: A Pink performance from the 2003 Billboard Awards on FOX finds her pushing a male dancer’s face into her crotch at about the 1:35 mark. HERE. Is it a double standard? Pink probably had the move approved ahead of time while Adam did not get permission for his face plant. Plus, Adam blames the FCC, but I suspect there’s more going on behind the scenes that we don’t know. And it’s two different networks airing the performances two years apart. I won’t make a determination on this til I have more information.
2nd Update: Adam Lambert tweets: Yes, sadly friends, ABC has cancelled my appearances on Kimmel and NYE. 
don’t blame them. It’s the FCC heat…I AM doing Leno though. And lookin into something for NYE…It’ll all blow over. Let’s focus on being positive! 
UPDATE: According to the Jimmy Kimmel Live Twitter, Allison Iraheta will perform on December 17 in Adam’s place.
Adam Lambert was scheduled to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live, but his performance has been mysteriously canceled. Kimmel is broadcast on ABC, home of the American Music Awards, and Good Morning America.
Peeps who have inquired about the cancellation have been told that the appearance will be re-scheduled sometime on 2010.
Adam’s GMA appearance was canceled after ABC censored his racy performance on the AMA’s. A network spokeperson said, “given his controversial live performance on the AMAs we were concerned about airing a similar concert so early in the morning.’
Some good news:
According to Rickey.org, Adam is scheduled to MC the big Z100 Jingle Ball on December 11. Kris Allen and Jordin Sparks are two of the acts who will be performing. Adam will also MC the Jingle Ball in Tampa, Florida on December 13.
Upcoming TV appearances include Barbara Walters Most Fascinating People on December 9 and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien on December 14.
There was some talk that Adam would appear on ABC’s New Years Rockin’ Eve on December 31, but it’s not listed on Adam’s official website with the rest of his gigs, so that appearance may not be set in stone.
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I thought Lynda’s long post was excellent.
I thought Lynda’s long post was excellent.
I usually skip long posts but Lynda, yours was worth the effort. I thought you made some excellent points.
Anyway, the topic seems pretty well exhausted or close to it. Too bad, ABC didn’t announce all the cancellations at one time. Would have made things so much simpler.
Right. Not pacific, though. But I didn’t realize it was actually showed earlier on Central, so that correction stands.
That was a great post, Lynda. Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Very interesting. Thanks for the insider description of how these things usually work …. I was thinking that it would be unlikely that it could have been accidental, too, since the people working a show like that would be neither neophytes nor untrained, but your discussion really fleshes that out.
Okay, conspiracy theory: Disney/ABC knew they were being questioned over the Rich Ross appointment (or something else?), so they decided to create a gay diversion, using somebody they could throw to the wolves (repeatedly) without really harming their own programming or corporate interests, in order to prove that they are still more than willing to crack down on the gay?
Good grief. This is turning me into a major crank.
Glad I’m not the only one who’s deeply puzzled and suspicious, however!
Whoa, Lynda – I admire your attention to detail and articulateness, and you do make some thought-provoking points. But just a few counter-arguments:
I don’t consider ABC hypocritical based on this, but rather based on the fact that they hyped Adam’s “shocking”, “see to believe”, “you’ll be talking about it the next day” performance all freaking night on the AMAs, and knew about the S&M theme, the leashes, heck, about 95% of the act ahead of time, then, got up in arms over the performance when it went too far. To me, they were hypocritical for wanting Adam for the shock of his performance, then punishing him for doing exactly that.
As for your extended oral sex analysis – I’m not sure if I could come up with the exact same example on tv – but I think this really is splitting hairs (as you say yourself). I personally actually find it more offensive to see oral sex hidden, say behind a desk, but with the scene going on for several moments and the actors moaning, etc. What Adam did, otoh, was roughly (er, wrong word, or right, lol) 1 second long, one gesture, no “continuing action”, etc. In fact, I still maintain that the still shots from the AMAs make it far more gratuitous and sexual than what actually appears on tv, since each of those acts happened very quickly on screen, to an extent that makes them far less gratutious than what’s occured on many scripted shows.
So I don’t agree with your point about “show me a comparable BJ scene to prove Adam is in the right” – I don’t think that really means much in the bigger scheme of this debate. And certainly the lack of said proof doesn’t prove he’s wrong.
No. The FCC does not say LOCAL TIME. You’re making an assumption. Here’s the rule:
Since “safe harbor” is 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., the networks air adult-themed programs are scheduled for 10 p.m. EST… which SHOULD mean 10 p.m. central, 10 p.m. mountain, and 10 p.m. pacific. Why 2 of the time zones opt to air the shows an hour earlier is a mystery to me.
For those of you who thought my comment was too long, I apologize. Normally if length is an issue, there is a character limit but if there is one here my comment didn’t exceed it.
I’ve simply been reading the reaction to the Adam/ABC issue since his performance aired and kept reading the same points repeatedly, some of which I disagree with and others of which I felt were patently false, and wanted to address them all at once. I was going to post it in the Kimmel cancellation thread, but as mentioned, that was locked, and I’m not sure how it’s so irrelevant for this post if some of the points I address were brought up in comments here by Adam fans before I posted anything.
It’s not that hard to scroll through it if you don’t want to read. I certainly scroll through enough comments I think are beyond redundant and counter-productive to a civil discussion. But if MJ decides it was too long, I’ll do what others do from now on and just post 900 smaller comments.
Mark, I look forward to the nitpicking. LOL.
And just to be clear, that I don’t think ABC is necessarily acting in a homophobic or hypocritical matter doesn’t mean I think their subsequent treatment of Adam is entirely fair or even wise, but that’s another issue entirely, IMO.
No, there is not a character limit for comments. And I find people suddenly complaining about long posts…kind of ironic, considering we’ve got several long-winded posters around here who never get complaints.
Thanks for your insight. Pretty much my take on the issue, I couldn’t have laid it all out in such an articulate fashion.
Yes, this is mainly my stance as well. We still don’t know enough about the exact reasons behind the cancellations (and we probably never will), but ABC’s actions do seem unwarranted and overreacting, and, imo, unfair to him, given what we do know about the situation. That’s what bothers me the most.
This really is the only thing that makes sense to me which is really pissing me off lol.
Yikes.
Me, too.
I like this theory, but IDK – simply based on the fact that during the most “offensive moment” (the BJ) – the sound was turned off (I believe on the lyric “screaming my name”) but visual remained (this is east coast feed). So I’m more inclined to go with the “pushed the wrong button”, “booth guy/director screwed up and got flustered, etc” theory than your theory, though I do like your theory
We get the East coast feed broadcast live, as it’s shown on the East coast. That’s why. It’s not hard to understand, lol. They don’t tape delay it an hour.
Why is oral sex worse than simulated humping? You certainly can’t deny that we see simulated humping constantly. Simulated humping, simulated rubbing of men’s crotches up against women’s rear ends — which I interpret as rear entry sex.
Etc.
And the only reason I can imagine for oral sex being considered more alarming than that is that oral sex is connected with gayness. Is there another reason? Because, if there is, it escapes me?
Heck, lots of heterosexual young people I know — and Bill CLinton, too, as I recall — say that they don’t think of oral sex as sex at all. That you can have heterosexual oral sex going in both directions as many times as you want and yet you’re not considered as having “had sex” at all, in many circles. …. So why, then, would it be considered more of a “dirty” thing than the simulated hump …. which was all over the AMAs??
And, yes, I know that lots of people say that,”Oh, I don’t see *that* as sex! That’s just gyrating!” To me, that just says that, people are so used to seeing it that they don’t notice that it’s sex.
WOW and I salute you Lynda for your post and for willing to take your time to write that extremely rational and articulate post!!!
And I agreed with Mark that it probably was one of the best things I read today (and this past 1-2 weeks) on the threads! And I agreed with everything written!
So thank you Lynda! Btw, I skipped a lot of posts everyday and will be glad to read yours anyday.
“Frankly, I have to consider the argument of anyone that keeps bringing up the Pink thing as ‘proof’ of homophobia even after that situation has been clarified, to be null and void because it’s obviously not based on any rational thinking. If you want people to think you’re trying to be unbiased and logical about the whole thing, please stop talking about Pink. She didn’t try it on an ABC broadcast and it didn’t get to air in the United States anyway.”
The Pink performance was aired in the US (or at least thats what I heard). The east coast was not censored, but the west coast was. A few people came forward from the east coast and said they remembered the Pink performance, and described what happened – the man opening his mouth, sticking his tongue out and his face went into Pink’s crotch.
I moved Lynda’s post and all the followups to this thread. Please be respectful of others opinions.
Interesting. I do think that perhaps the distinction is that the other two acts do happen outside of a performance context in ways that have obvious sexual value but aren’t actually the act itself (in, say, high school dances or in clubs). So there’s some allowance given there. Oral… not so much.
Um, that didn’t strike me immediately. Perhaps it’s possible, but when I think of why oral might be more offensive it’s not close to me mind at all.
This is stated like its fact. I tend to think that most of his sales were due to publicity (BAD publicity which got some people curious), the fact that it was the biggest shopping week of the year..the price dropping for the first days. Huge talent?? thats debatable, Massive appeal? to who.?? i also think alot of his sales were attributed to his fanbase (and some multiple buying) that will show up in a big drop next week.
What about the lesbian action of some chick rubbing Shakira’s ass during her performance at the AMA’s? Anybody complain about that? Nah didn’t think so.
Although ABC did receive about 1,500 complaints from viewers about Lambert’s highly sexualized performance, dozens of Lambert fans have been complaining about ABC’s decision to cancel Lambert’s “Good Morning America” interview and now the “Kimmel” performance. Many of those critics say Lambert is being targeted because he is a gay male, as Janet Jackson, who opened the American Music Awards, grabbed the crotch of a male dancer and went unscathed by critics.
The director of cultural affairs for Liberty Counsel told The Times today that his firm was not aware of Jackson’s performance.
“The issue is not so much about homosexuality, although I believe the preponderance of Americans find public hyper-sexualized acts of homosexuality particularly off-putting,” Matt Barber said. “But the issue was more of indecency and what is decency. And frankly the issue is one of law. We believe this performance met the threshold for violation of federal law and violation of FCC regulations. And the Supreme Court has held time and again that there’s not a First Amendment right to engage in public indecency as evidenced by the outcry and complaints that poured into ABC. We believe that this violated contemporary community standards in terms of what is and what isn’t decent.”
But “Kimmel” airs well after 10 p.m., the cut-off time the FCC has set for when indecent material cannot be broadcast. Lambert’s AMA appearance occurred at 10:55 p.m. [Updated: 12:51 p.m. It was edited for the West Coast, but the timing could be an issue in the Central Time Zone, which would have seen it at 9:55 p.m.]
“I would say this is inappropriate period,” Barber said. “This is not HBO or some of these cable networks where that type of indecency and filth has come to be expected. This is television where people just flipping through channels could have stumbled onto that. People unaware of what’s coming down the pike in terms of the indecency being performed. And it’s just really, frankly, not appropriate for network television, period, to mimic one man performing oral sex on another man.”
Wow, just wow. No, this isn’t about homophobia at all!
Nope-Kirsten has stated SEVERAL times that multiple buying does not affect sales in a significant way.
I am expecting a 60 to 70% drop, because Kirsten said that is typical for idols.
No matter how you cut it, Adam was thrown to the wolves. Did Pink lose gigs after her performance? How much talk/press was there. I don’t even remember hearing about it. I doubt many will forget this Adam hoopla.
Matt Barber and Liberty Council which filed the FCC complaint are well for their anti homosexuality stance. Liberty refers to the “homosexuality agenda” on their website, but I think they are the ones with the agenda. This is about homosexuality whether you want to believe it or not at least as far as the Liberty Council is concerned.
i am soo confused about something..maybe i am just naive about these things but i dont understand why abc is cancelling all of adams appearances, whether they are taped or live…while the other stations are jumping to book him. does abc really think he would do that again? and what would be the appropriate amount of time to not let him on abc?
“”It’s not that hard to scroll through it if you don’t want to read. I certainly scroll through enough comments I think are beyond redundant and counter-productive to a civil discussion. But if MJ decides it was too long, I’ll do what others do from now on and just post 900 smaller comments.”"
I think it is great that you have enough time in the day to devote to that, my life is far too busy – I can pop in and out on a break from this or that but my time is far too precious – good for you though
Lynda, that post was epic. And I agree completely.
But he’s also droned on and on about how he understood ABC’s decisions, even last week, in cancelling him on GMA after first, and these latest ones, he’s said he understands ABC’s decision as not THEIR fault. Even if he didn’t apologize for the performance and was realizing it was a taste level issue. And he didn’t just say that CBS’s decision was ‘weak,’ he said it proved his original point. Which I thought his original point with ABC was wrong, but with CBS was right, so that the overall point of discrimation was in fact valid. And he hasn’t used his argument against ABC outside of his immediate and pissy interview after the performance. Which after that in all his other interviews, it’s more been the response of people watching who were offended, for whatever reason (again, I think Adam wrongly assigns it to sexualized homosexual male images) but understanding that ABC was responding to complaints.
As for droning on and on about ABC’s response, well he keeps on getting asked about it and about their cancelling the GMA thing because of it. Most people don’t bring up the CBS thing specifically. The Ellen interview was only generally about the issue, not ABC specifically, though again, Adam excused ABC’s decision to cancel him AND keep Chris Brown on.
Again, I think Adam was wrong (and a pissy jerk) in his immediate interview after the AMAs, I think he’s wrong in his continued thinking that it’s a gender and/or gay male thing, but he’s been consistent after the first craptastic interview, that he was the one that got ABC in trouble, and that their responses were valid.
Though I do think that overall Adam is right in some ways about gender roles and sexuality and how women are allowed greater freedom, than men in expressing it, specifically homosexual images. Women kissing is hott, men kissing is ewwww. Women can choose not to wear make-up, a lot more easily than men can decide to wear make-up. Women can decide to wear pants a lot more easily than men can decide to wear skirts. Of course it’s not that cut and dry and I could get into the feminst parts of how women are sexual objects, but this is already my own epically tl; dr.
I do not wear Adam goggles, thank you. Maybe an Adam monocle, but that’s it. I can agree and disagree with Adam at various times. I don’t think ABC’s decision has homophobic, I do think it was excessive and not smart PR overall, though totally their right to do so. And yeah, I suspect that their decison has more to do with placating sponsors who ARE responding to pressure about more homophobia (like those Liberty people who are cited in the LA Times article) than they really are about the FCC. Though again (and yaawwwwn) I can even totally understand their decision to even just decide Adam could cost them with the FCC and screw him.
GLAAD and ABC statements on the cancellations:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/12/glaad-and-abc-are-at-peace-over-adam-lambert.html
OMG, GLAAD is homophobic too! LOL
Central time is always televised at the same time EST is. Hence the 8 pm Est 7 pm Central. Has always been this way. I live in the the midwest and our “prime time” starts at 7 pm cst and ends at 10 pm. Our 11 o’clock news is on at 10 o’clock. The central time zone didn’t “opt to air the shows an hour earlier”. It always starts at 7 pm. Listen to ads for shows on TV. They always say 8 pm/7 central.
Lynda, that was an awesome post.
Truthiness, I said that he droned on about being edited because he’s a gay man, and he said that more than just the one time. In more recent days he has changed his tune, either sincerely or just for the sake of smoothing things over, about it being more of a gay thing than a level of sexuality thing, but I’d expect anyone that genuinely put off by homophobic reaction to the AMA performance to be equally put off by the very real way CBS caved to homophobic backlash to the kiss and yet he only mentioned it once, as far as I’ve seen. (If there’s another interview besides the one where he called the decision “weak,” I stand corrected on that front.) He can work it into the general conversation about the whole hoopla without having to be asked about The Early Show specifically, if he’s genuinely as upset about double standards for gay men as he appeared to be right after the AMAs. It’s not as if ABC didn’t continue to receive heat from several media outlets for “banning Adam because of a gay kiss” while what CBS did faded into the background and then disappeared from the conversation completely (and I’m talking before the latest round of cancellations).
I think one network slapping down another, giving Adam a platform to talk about what he felt was a bias against gay men, and generally acting as though they were above ABC only to ironically blur the kiss is even worse than if ABC had honestly reacted entirely to gay panic and nothing else, and if I were Adam I would have been mighty pissed off about the way CBS exploited the situation while simultaneously contributing (in a much more obvious manner, IMO) to the very injustice I was trying to fight. What CBS seemed to be saying by blurring the kiss but patting themselves on the back for trusting Adam to give an appropriate performance was, “Oh, silly ABC, we know Adam will be a good boy and not infect our show with Teh Gay. You’re ridiculous to think otherwise. Yay ratings spike!” and that really should have gotten a bigger response from him than it did, considering his comments about the AMA hoopla.
Just in general, he seems concerned with defending his performance and avoiding as much responsibility as possible more than anything else, including the double standards he first used to defend himself before backing off that particular train of thought.
And you know, I get that he feels he didn’t do anything wrong in his performance and doesn’t want to apologize for it, but that’s a separate issue from the assumption that anyone who thought what he did was wrong is ignorant and doesn’t know how to handle gay men expressing their sexuality, and he could very well apologize for making that implication without apologizing for the performance itself, especially if he’s not going to make a stink about what The Early Show did, which I, for one, would find entirely justified.
I’m glad some of you enjoyed my original post. Thanks for the positive comments.
Though not nearly as long, this one is also lengthy, so get to scrolling if you’re strapped for time I guess, LOL.
To address some responses to my original post on the previous page:
As I said, I’m not debating with those who think what Adam did is no worse than somewhat different acts that are allowed on television (crotch grabs, dry humping, whatever), or nothing in comparison to the wholly different yet much more offensive, hateful acts that routinely get by the censors. I do find a lot of the distinctions between what’s okay and what isn’t to be downright bizarre, personally speaking, and if people are using Adam’s situation to open up a debate about that kind of uneven, hair-splitting censorship, good.
But I’m specifically addressing those who are saying that the supposed hypocrisy of it all lies in ABC allowing heterosexual acts and female-on-female acts that are “the same” to be broadcast versus what two men are allowed (or not allowed) to do when the fact of the matter is there isn’t any known example of “the same” other than the censored Pink performance, so I don’t see how anyone can say it’s clearly a bias against gay men, exclusively.
For television censors, the unobstructed showing of simulated oral sex isn’t remotely “the same” because it is more graphic, and a lot of the time the degree to which an image is graphic is the deciding factor for them when it comes to a variety of topics including but not limited to sex acts. Unfortunately, as stupid as you and I think that is, everyone involved with network television productions within certain time slots are held to those standards. There is a line across the board, for both genders and the entire spectrum of sexual orientation. Adam crossed it. It’s not just gay men who are expected to roll with the arguably nonsensical demarcations. The first person to ignore or just be unaware of the fact that full-view simulated oral sex is a no-no and manage to make it on air with the move, unfortunately, just so happens to be a gay man.
Some sex acts may be perceived by a certain faction as “more gay” than others, but as illustrated by the several examples people have tried to put forth to prove there’s a bias here (Pink, Cougar Town, Dancing With The Stars), oral sex isn’t a strictly homosexual act so I don’t buy for a second that oral sex being “more gay” than other sex acts is why no one, even a heterosexual pairing, has been allowed to simulate it as graphically.
If Adam had managed to turn his back to every camera or somehow obscure the act and the reaction he received was exactly the same as what he’s going through now, I’d agree there’s a double standard that smacks of a bias against gay men. But that’s the only way it would have been directly comparable to the man/woman and woman/woman examples given in terms of being able to fairly decide if ABC’s actions are predominantly fueled by homophobia, be it their own or that of whoever they’re caving to.
I think most people (at least most people I know) have recognized that since the Super Bowl nipplegate fiasco, you just have to err on the side of caution when it comes to sexual content on live television. I admit the limits aren’t very clearly defined, but that’s why no one should be taking a risk with material that hasn’t been cleared by legal before broadcast. And I suppose that one can put all of the blame on ABC for not telling Adam outright that he can’t deviate so wildly from rehearsals, but I wouldn’t have thought someone like Adam needed to be told, either. He’s not stupid, he’s not that young, and he’s not that green. He chose to give himself jurisdiction over content that no other performer gets, and then shrugged it off and told reporters that “it’s fun” to do things that shock people, so it’s not like he had no clue it might raise some eyebrows. I also expect he knows full well that, at the very least, you can’t flip people the bird, which he also attempted to incorporate into the broadcast. (If he doesn’t know you can’t flip off the cameras at this point in his life, he’s simply not properly equipped for the career he’s been given and deserves a metaphorical smack upside the head.) He made his own bed. Having no idea what ABC is trying to accomplish by banning him from performing on their network, it remains to be seen if what they’re doing is simply petty and vindictive or maybe some misguided attempt to set an example with Adam to make sure they’re not put in such a position again by any artist, but either way, seeing as how no one forced Adam to improvise the “shocking” sex acts, he did this to himself. He’s not being persecuted for doing nothing. He’s having to deal with the consequences of pissing off someone who essentially hired him to do a job.
As for how the AMA performance was promoted, you can do “shocking” water cooler stuff without crossing any boundaries. The portions of the performance that weren’t improvised were enough to merit the hype, but I don’t think the way they worded the Adam-pimping bumpers over the course of the evening in any way is enough to give people with common sense the idea that they can randomly stick another person’s face in their fly without getting the OK from producers first. Or am I to believe that Adam heard the advertisements leading up to the performance and got confused because he thought, “Those phrases can’t possibly apply to the S&M theme with people on leashes, so they must be encouraging me to amp it up a thousand notches!”? Because if that’s similar to Adam’s real thought process, I have to say, that would make him a bit … off, IMO.
Hot damn. *slow clap* Lynda – I am officially a fan.
I agree with this %100. ABC hired him to do a job. There are certain standards that are acceptable. ABC cleared what was acceptable. If Adam wanted more he should have said something pre-show. I simply don’t believe after months on Idol and months on tour that he “forgot” he was in front of a camera or got “carried away”. And I was saddened by his talk of the being a theater guy when he did his best to break away from that theater mold during Idol. But when it’s convenient let’s trot it out. I still maintain that that performance was full of anger and discontent. And given that bird and after AMA interview it seems clear that he WAS angry and that it was that anger that influenced his performance.
You know Adam shouldn’t have to apologize for being himself. But I think he’s having a hard time figuring out who he is. Many of his interviews have PR rhetoric written all over them. I hope that he finds the right balance.
As for ABC, well Barbara Walters got her way (surprise!) so this might be the end of his dry spell with them….