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Several
affiliates nixing Simpson show
From David Bauder
NEW
YORK—Several Fox affiliates have chosen not to broadcast “If I Did It,”
the two-part special where O.J. Simpson talks in hypothetical terms
about his role in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson,
and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Lin Broadcasting and Pappas Broadcasting, which own a combined nine Fox
affiliates, have said they won’t air it. Fox has scheduled the Simpson
interview for Nov. 27 and 29.
The television special precedes the Nov. 30 publication of a book where
Simpson talks about how he would have committed the murders “if he were
the one responsible.”
“After careful consideration regarding the nature of the show, as well
as the feedback we received from the viewers of northeast Wisconsin, we
determined that this programming was not serving the local public
interest,” wrote Jay Zollar, general manager of WLUK-TV in Green Bay.
WLUK is a Lin-owned station, along with other Fox affiliates in Mobile,
Ala.; Toledo, Ohio; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Providence, R.I.
The Pappas stations said they were uninterested in helping Simpson
profit from the project. Pappas owns Fox stations in Omaha and Lincoln,
Neb.; Fresno, Calif.; and Dakota Dunes, S.D.
There are about 200 Fox affiliates across the country.
Scott Grogin, Fox spokesman, said Sunday the network had no comment
about the decision by its affiliates.
The show is expected to draw high ratings among the curious, but there’s
some question about how much Fox can take advantage of it given an
expected reluctance of advertisers to be associated with it.
The Fox stations in most of the nation’s biggest cities, including New
York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are owned by Fox, so they would abide by
the network’s decision on what to air.
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