Motley Crue: Why They Got Banned From Late Night TV & Sued NBC

Motley Crue: Why the band was banned from late night tv on NBC.

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Today’s story is a pretty strange one. Back in 2005 Motley Crue appeared on an American Television Network to promote their anthology album at the time. The whole appearance ended with the band turning around and suing the television network for hurting album and concert sales and violating their free speech rights Let’s explore what happened in today’s video.

On December 31, 2004 Jay Leno’s tonight show on nbc held a new year’s eve episode with Motley Crue as the musical guest. The band was promoting their anthology album called Red, White and Crue. Motley Crue performed two of their classic songs girls girls girls and dr. feelgood . During Motley Crue’s performance of Girls Girls Girls frontman Vince Neil turned to drummer Tommy Lee and said, used an expletive as you can see here.

Of course the Federal Communications Commission who is responsible for monitoring the broadcast ariwaves received viewer complaints that probably could be counted on one hand. Fearing the wrath of the federal government who could’ve fined the network or worse removed their licenses, NBC quickly banned Motley Crue from any future appearances on the network. By this point in time The band was already set to appear on Carson Daily’s late night show but that appearance got cancelled. Motley Crue contended that they tried to issue a statement apologizing for the slip-up but was blocked by NBC’s brass from doing so. While Leno’s show that night recorded a live broadcast for the east coast where the f word was heard by viewers in that time slot, other time zones didn’t hear the expletive as they saw a rebroadcast that was edited out.

Five months after the incident Motley Crue filed a lawsuit against NBC seeking punitive damages for hurting the band’s record and ticket sales The lawsuit lso alleged NBC's decision and i quote "interfered with the band's ability to secure optimal concert bookings, sponsorships and co-branding relationships." The band would claim Vince Neil was and i quote "caught in the exuberance of the moment"
Bassist Nikki Sixx would put out a statement around the time of the lawsuit saying"We meant no harm, but it feels that we're being singled out unfairly," "This is a discrimination issue, pure and simple."
The lawsuit also questioned why NBC announced that Tommy Lee would appear by himself in an upcoming television reality show called Tommy Lee goes to college despite the ban, Motley Crue’s lawsuit alleged the network censored the group as a whole to please the federal government so no actions would be taken against NBC

The band’s lawyers pointed to U2, System of a Down and John Mayer for having similar slip ups but not facing the same consequences. Motley Crue’s lawyers zeroed on Bono’s acceptance speech at the golden globe awards 2 years prior where he used the phrase “fucking brilliant” when receiving a 2003 Golden Globe for the band’s contribution to the film Gangs of New York. PS I’ve done a whole video on this incident it’s down in the description box below. U2 walked away unscathed as did NBC. At the time, NBC even went to out of their way to defend Bono for claiming the use of the f-word was and i quoe “isolated and fleeting.”.

You have to remember though that the FCC started to seriously crack down on what they considered to be indecency after the whole Janet Jackson super bowl incident in 2004. The problem was that the federal government didn’t have an exact definition of what constituted indecency.

Up until 2004 The rules for late night programming have always been a little looser since it’s less likely that children would be watching. According to the FCC the f word shouldn’t be used on radio or television programs when children would be watching or listening. The same rule didn’t technically apply to the hours of 10pm to 6 am as the FCC typically evaluates complaints during those hours on a case by case basis. Of course after the janet jackson slip up any use of the f word or profanity was heavily scrutanized and considered indecent.

NBC issued the following statement responding to the lawsuit: "To ensure compliance with its broadcast standards, NBC has the right to decide not to invite back guests who violate those standards and use an expletive during a live entertainment program. The l