NBC Draws Fire for Language in ‘Will,’ ‘SNL’

Months after dubbing out a word in one of its sitcoms after complaints that it was a racial insult, NBC aired a rerun of the episode intact, saying it had initially overreacted to minority activists who were offended when a Latina character was called a “tamale.”

In the Dec. 7 repeat of the “Will & Grace” episode, a character named Karen calls her Salvadoran maid, Rosario, a tamale. The term means “thief” in Salvadoran slang, according to Randy Jurado Ertll, president of Salvadoran-American Political Action Committee, which led a small protest outside NBC headquarters in Burbank on Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for NBC said: “We felt that we overreacted when we edited out the remark in the original airing. Karen and Rosario have a loving relationship and often trade barbs with each other, and the word is used in context of that relationship.”

But that is a departure from the last-minute decision by network executives immediately before the Sept. 21 premiere to dub “tamale” with “honey.” At the time, the same spokeswoman said it was “the most appropriate thing to do.”

Alex Nogales, spokesman for the National Hispanic Media Coalition, one of the groups leading the charge for greater diversity in Hollywood, said NBC’s comments were arrogant. “Given the politically charged environment they’re operating in, how can they say something so silly?” he asked. “It shows you how badly they need diversity in their workplace.”

NBC has also come under fire from the Anti-Defamation League for a Dec. 4 sketch on “Saturday Night Live” in which guest host Christina Ricci, portraying pop music singer Britney Spears in a Christmas show parody, said that Christians have forgiven Jews “for having killed our Lord.”

Responding to the ADL’s complaints, an NBC executive wrote that the sketch would be excised from any future broadcast. But “SNL’s” producers and NBC officials subsequently have said the matter is still under review.