Broadcast Standards and Practices

For the professional wrestling tag team, see Lenny and Lodi.

In the United States, Standards and Practices (also referred to as Broadcast Standards and Practices) is the name traditionally given to the department at a television network which is responsible for the moral, ethical, and legal implications of the program that network airs. Standards and Practices also ensures fairness on television game shows, in which they are the adjunct to the judges at the production company level.

Examples of intervention by Standards and Practices

• Episode 97 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) has never aired in the United States due to pressures from Fox Broadcast & Standards (although 4Kids Entertainment leased the time from the network for their FoxBox block and aired the series, it still had to meet Fox's broadcast standards). On the official TMNT website, Lloyd Goldfine states:

The final edited and mixed version of the notorious 'Insane in the Membrane' was deemed unsuitable for air by Fox Broadcast Standards and Practices. Apparently, in between the time the episode was written, storyboarded, animated and edited (all stages approved by Fox BS&P), and the time the show was mixed for air, there was a change of personnel in the Fox BS&P offices, and no one involved in the original approvals was still employed at Fox. Upon seeing the episode, they were said to be 'horrified' and that there was no way they could air the episode. I'm not sure I disagree with them—had there been BS&P comments earlier in the process, we certainly would have handled the show differently. But as it was approved at every stage, we went full steam ahead. In the end, I was told it was bad judgment on my part... so there you have it. I believe this episode will eventually be available, but plans have not been finalized.

• The final three episodes of the first season of Moral Orel were held back for various amounts of time by Standards and Practices due to being too dark and over the top sexually crude even for Adult Swim, which airs many shows rated TV-MA. Another episode entitled "God's Chef" was delayed for months before the Adult Swim network was able to show it. It has since been released uncensored along with the rest of season 1 and part of season 2 on DVD.

• X-Men: The Animated Series was very heavily influenced by BS&P. Unlike the comic book, characters were rarely ever in any danger and characters almost never hit each other directly.

• The acclaimed CGI show ReBoot was heavily censored by the American Broadcasting Company during its run on the network. When ABC was bought by Disney they announced ReBoot's cancellation during the shows second season. The writers decided to write stories that purposefully violated the extreme censoring since they were being canceled anyway. ReBoot went on to produce another successful season and two made for TV movies on other networks.

Game show incidents

Resulting from the quiz show scandals, game shows have been closely monitored by network standards and practices departments for possible irregularities. When an incident occurs, the most common resolution is to permit the contestant to appear on the game again at a later date.

The Price Is Right

On rare occasions, contestants who have lost games because of procedural irregularities have been awarded the prizes. Irregularities have occurred when prize descriptions or prices displayed for the item in question have been incorrect, mechanical errors with certain pricing game props, or administrative errors by models or the host (such as a misheard bid). When such an error occurs, the contestant is awarded any prizes in question, and either a disclaimer appears or is read by the announcer during the closing credits of the show.

During a September 22, 2008 taping, contestant Terry Kneiss made a perfect Showcase bid. CBS Standards and Practices, host Drew Carey, and producer Kathy Greco became suspicious that another party in the studio had supplied Kneiss with the bid, which then resulted in a 45-minute stop down. Although the contestant was ultimately awarded the prizes, the show air date was moved back from its original schedule. As a result of the incident, up to 30 new prizes began appearing each taping week. Carey wrote on his blog before the 2009 season premiere that with so few prizes being offered, "It was possible, if one wanted, to watch the show for a while and memorize the price of almost every prize we offered."

Other game shows

Contestants on other game shows, such as Jeopardy! and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, have been brought back on later episodes after a judging error or an error related to question material had been discovered.

External links

• Standards and Practices, The Museum of Broadcast Communications
• Are Fox and The NFL Kidding? Apparently Standards and Practices Are... Fluid.