I watch a lot of old craig ferguson late late show videos on youtube and i have noticed they bleep all cursewords but he always talks about the show being at 12:30am in some regions. Shows that late are almost guaranteed to not have children watching. Today i was watching TV here in sweden and they cursed in an ad and i realised i havent seen them bleep out cursewords on TV here in any type of show, i dont watch a lot of tv though
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Yes – Network television is censored a bit, but cable television channels have fewer restrictions. I’d suggest watching South Park or anything on FX for examples. Premium channels like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc. don’t need to follow those rules but having curse words just for the sake of it is a bit tacky.
Certain words, yes. It really depends on the network and the time slot.
Also, always good to meet another Craigy Ferg fan out there. Easily the best late night host since Carson.
Back in my ancient day, they used to heavily censor language on broadcast television, before cable was ever a thing. I haven’t watched broadcast TV in ages, but I don’t think they censor much if at all anymore. Cable, streaming, satellite never really have IIRC
Yep. What words are or arent allowed depends on whether it’s network, cable, or premium cable.
Have you seen Game of Thrones? Breaking Bad? South Park?
Rick and Morty?
Those are American TV shows.
For “broadcast” television shows, meaning legacy networks that are broadcast free over public airwaves (NBC, CBS, etc) there are decency rules between certain hours (8:00 am to 10:00pm I think)
Any cable television channels (AMC, FX, HBO, MTV etc) are unregulated for content and could show hard core porn if they wanted. Just the advertisers would balk at that.’
In your case of Craig Furguson, they COULD curse on that show legally speaking, but choose not to on their own probably to appease ‘family friendly’ advertisers.
Broadcast TV is somewhat censored, but cable and premium cable absolutely are not.
In a nutshell… if its a channel that you can pick up with an antenna (no matter how its actually delivered) it will be censored in the US. The broadcasters can be fined for obscenity on a channel that is available over the air.
There are kind of three tiers to this. First you have Network tv, which are the original stations that started out broadcasting over the air which you would pick up with an antenna. Because they are over the airwaves they are regulated by the FCC and they do have restrictions on profanity, nudity, etc. You will hear a hell, a damn, or an ass but not a shit or fuck or goddamn.
After that you have what is still called cable TV even though pretty much everyone gets their TV through a cable rather than an antenna these days, which is technically not regulated by the fcc. They still do self regulate because they are worried about losing advertising and sponsorships but you will see a little bit more leeway on those channels. Late at night they will be even less strict a lot of the time.
And then you have your subscription channels like hbo, showtime, etc. Those ones are under no obligation to censor and they generally don’t. That’s why you get graphic violence, full nudity, and full profanity on a lot of their shows. Stuff like game of thrones and The sopranos we’re on those types of stations.
Curse words and nudity are a no go for most broadcast/network television stations. However for cable tv like HBO, they are fair game. Violence, however, is permitted on almost channels though.
As far as I’m aware, there’s none in the daytime. During the night, channels are more willing to permit swearing in shows and movies.
Yes, but it depends.
Broadcast television (Over-the-air using antenna), is regulated by the FCC and have rules on cursing and nudity. Since most programing is from this medium, the result is what you just described OP.
Cable/Sat/ISP television is not regulated by the FCC and allow for cursing and nudity. However, they cater more to advertisers whims here to keep it more “family friendly” so the ads can cast a wider audience. Thus, programming tends to be a looser version of what Broadcast television is.
Premium channels are those you pay extra to have (i.e. HBO, Showtime, Stars). Here their are no advertisers and thus has the most freedom on showing whatever. The shows that are made on these channels tend to get mention a lot as the counter-argument for these types of questions (Sopranos, Game of Thrones, etc.).
[Yes](https://youtu.be/O5JAlmjXN9c)
Is it being broadcast over the public airwaves (as in, you can pick it up with an old-fashioned antenna)?
Does the station doing the broadcasting depend on advertising dollars?
If the answer to either of those is “yes”, then that’s why. Otherwise, if it’s a subscriber service such as Netflix or HBO, nobody gives a fuck.
Cable is basically anything they want is allowed. Broadcast tv is no swearing until the night and then fairly limited at that.
Yes
Depends on the channel. You’ll hear a ton of it on Comedy Central (especially when South Park is on).
Yes. Premium cable is a free for all. Basic cable is somewhat restricted in what you can say, but can be uncensored late at night. Broadcast TV is the most censored, but those aren’t many channels.
Not swearing in advertisements is likely a choice rather than a requirement.