Rescheduling the broadcast date of a TV episode for a jarring story-line similar to that of a recent occurring event is a decades-long practice in broadcast. This time, however, The Carmichael Show star and creator Jerrod Carmichael took to Netflix’s Chelsea to express his disapproval of NBC pulling an episode of the show from the lineup due to the two mass-shootings that took place one day prior to its air date.
The episode in conflict titled ‘Shoot-Up-Able’ would see Jerrod’s character coping with the aftermath of a mass-shooting, giving his eyewitness account to the police, TV Guide reports.
On Wednesday members of the GOP practicing in an Alexandria park for Thursday’s charity Congressional Baseball Game were gunned down by an armed man. He wounded four people, including Rep. Steve Scalise and a lobbyist. Following this attack, an individual opened fire at a San Francisco UPS facility, murdering three people and injuring more.
NBC’s response was to pull the episode and replace it with another episode already scheduled to air this month, Deadline confirms. Carmichael was up in arms about the network’s decision, sharply criticizing, “I understand corporation making that decision, but really, to me, what it says is that you don’t think America is smart enough to handle real dialogue and something that reflects real family conversations and something that feels honest and true and still respects the victims,” he said to Chelsea Handler in an interview for her Netflix show.
But, NBC stands by their decision to reschedule the episode due to its similar nature of horrific events occurring on or near the same date, out of respect for the victims of these heinous attacks, which has been practiced in the industry for years.
CBS pulled a Supergirl and NCIS: Los Angeles episode that contained bombing and ISIS recruiting plot-lines, following the news of an ISIS-related shooting and a bombing in Paris that killed 130 people and wounded others.
In 1999 NBC made the decision to reschedule a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode with a story-line where a student brings a gun to school to inflict upon himself after two students gunned down 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School around the same time.
Still, Carmichael believes the timing is of significance to the viewer, adding that, “We handled the episode with as much love and integrity as we could. To pull that is just criminal. It does a disservice to the viewer, it does a disservice to you, it does a disservice to all of us.”
Watch the full interview with Jerrod Carmichael below: