Tuned In, Turned Off and Put Out

The day after a heart-stopping Super Bowl and the day before a series of make-or-break Democratic presidential primary elections, these questions tore through America:

“Did you see it?”

“Did she do it on purpose?”

“What did the producers know and when did they know it?”

The 2-second exposure of Janet Jackson’s right breast during the Super Bowl halftime show in Houston on Sunday brought hand-wringing from cultural critics, a strained explanation by Jackson’s co-performer (“wardrobe malfunction”), outrage from federal regulators and apologies from the two corporate network siblings -- MTV and CBS -- responsible for the broadcast.

And finally, Monday afternoon, Jackson confessed that she, without the knowledge of the producers, had cooked up the stunt after final rehearsals. If so, she apparently was in cahoots with her performing partner, Justin Timberlake, who was supposed to have only ripped away one layer of clothing instead of two, a Jackson representative told Associated Press.

The singer, whose camp hoped her Super Bowl appearance would draw attention back to a star who has been away from the spotlight in recent years, released a brief apology: “It was not my intention that [the stunt] go as far as it did.”

In a nation growing used to the raunchiest fare on cable and, increasingly, on broadcast TV, the moment appeared to represent a tipping point of sorts. Jackson -- whose first album since 2001 is due out March 30 -- chose to expose herself in front of an audience averaging nearly 90 million, jolting one of the last surviving mass-media events in an ever more fragmented broadcasting environment.

The episode became the newest platform for Americans to decry the increasing sexualizing of media. It also raised more calls for the Federal Communications Commission to require broadcasters to institute talk radio-style delays in some live programs.

Critics found more to object to on Sunday than just the Jackson exposure. During the game, commercials for competing erectile dysfunction products went nuance-for-nuance, earning CBS millions of dollars but creating awkward moments for parents and children watching at home. A pay-per-view halftime special on another network featured two teams of lingerie-wearing beauties. And if that wasn’t enough, the limits of live sports TV were pushed in another forum Sunday: Laker center Shaquille O’Neal, complaining in a postgame interview on KCAL -- a corporate cousin of CBS -- about officiating, used such crude language that the National Basketball Assn. suspended him from Monday night’s game.

Sunday’s moment also was amplified and dissected in the new echo chambers of 21st century entertainment technology. Across America fingers were flying on TiVo remotes to summon slow-motion footage. (The company said the Jackson-Timberlake stunt drew a 180% spike in viewership, the biggest it has ever measured.) And within minutes, computer keyboards were lighting up as the jury room of the Internet was used to debate and devour the latest pop culture candy.

Timberlake was performing one of his hits with Jackson when he reached across her leather gladiator outfit and pulled the covering off her right breast. CBS cameras almost immediately cut away, and none of the three announcers commented. The initial explanation -- Timberlake’s claim of “wardrobe malfunction” -- was immediately assaulted. Cynics felt the shock that seemed to register on the faces of Jackson and Timberlake looked more like stagecraft than real surprise. All Timberlake would say in his own statement was that the event was “not intentional” -- a claim apparently contradicted by Jackson Monday.

In Washington, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell said his agency would investigate to determine who, if anybody, could be held accountable. “I am outraged,” Powell said in a statement issued before Jackson’s apology.

The chairman of the House panel that oversees the FCC said he will press ahead with a bill that would dramatically increase fines against television stations for such offenses.

“I am appalled with last night’s shameless stunt during the Super Bowl,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee. “With my bill ... networks will do more than just apologize for airing such brazen material; they will be paying big bucks for their offenses.”

The breast-flashing episode is one more bit of evidence that CBS is no longer the network of older-skewing shows like “Matlock” and “Murder, She Wrote,” even if it does still attract an older audience than the other broadcast networks. But it was just the latest in a series of controversies for CBS, which include the network’s decision to pull its Ronald and Nancy Reagan biopic and allegations that the network improperly tied together a Michael Jackson news interview and entertainment special. CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, who said he pulled “The Reagans” when he found its quality unsatisfactory, said in an e-mail to employees Monday: “We are angry and embarrassed that this happened during our superb broadcast.”

It is unclear what, if anything, the network might have done to censor a live, halftime broadcast. And legal experts said Monday that despite the tough words from regulators and lawmakers, the FCC is unlikely to severely punish Viacom or its CBS stations. “What happened Sunday night was nudity” and you can’t punish a station for that alone, said Jason Shrinsky, a onetime lawyer for the FCC who, as a private attorney, has defended shock jock Howard Stern against allegations of indecency.

Although broadcasters are not required to air live events on a delayed basis, they are held legally responsible for material sent out over the airwaves. The FCC can fine broadcasters as much as $27,500 per incident deemed “indecent” under federal law and the agency can also revoke a broadcaster’s communications license. But a string of incidents ranging from profanity to shocking special effects have created a debate over where the government ought to draw the line.

The initial trigger was last year’s Golden Globes broadcast, during which U2 rocker Bono used a vulgar term. The Federal Communications Commission considered imposing a fine on NBC for not employing its 7-second-delay device, but ultimately decided not to. In response, citizens sent 100,000 pieces of protest mail to the FCC.

CBS’ affiliates, who as the local licensees would potentially bear the brunt of any FCC punitive action, fielded a flood of calls from viewers after the halftime stunt.

“There is more widespread outrage at this than at anything else in recent memory,” said Bob Lee, president and general manager of WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va., and head of CBS’ affiliate board. “Viewers are telling stations that the entire MTV halftime show bordered on the lewd and was just inappropriate for a mass audience of the sort one might expect to tune in to the Super Bowl.” Lobbyists for Viacom, which owns both CBS and MTV, may also feel the impact of Sunday’s stunt, Lee said, as they try to convince Congress to give them greater freedom to purchase local stations.

One MTV executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said CBS should not have been surprised. MTV’s website included the headline: “Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl Show Promises ‘Shocking Moments’ ”

Jackson has sold more than 17 million albums since 1991. While her famous brother Michael was the family superstar of the 1980s, it was his little sister who in the 1990s became the family’s more bankable concert performer and hit maker.

Last week, her choreographer, Gil Duldulao, promised her Super Bowl routine would include “some shocking moments ... she’s more a woman as she dances this time around.”

Even before the peekaboo finale, the halftime show was infused with racy energy. Rapper Nelly performed his hit “Hot in Herrre,” which urges women to strip their clothes off to escape dance-floor swelter, and Kid Rock sang “Cowboy,” an ode to the rap-rocker’s favorite West Coast cultural treasures, among them Heidi Fleiss, Larry Flynt, artificial breasts and strip clubs.

Timberlake and Jackson performed a duet version of Timberlake’s lusty dance hit “Rock Your Body.” After Timberlake sang the climactic line, “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song,” he punctuated the lyric by ripping away the section of costume. (Blow-up photos on the Internet revealed a large sunburst pinwheel nipple ornament.) Fireworks launched behind the stage as the song faded out. Then more fireworks -- in the form of viewer complaints -- hit CBS’ New York headquarters, jamming phone lines.

Criticism of Sunday’s broadcast extended even to the Super Bowl commercials. “What they did is take the ultimate family-hour program and turn it into a stag party” for young males, said David Walsh, president and founder of the Minneapolis-based National Institute on Media and the Family.

Affiliate board president Lee said affiliates are now “most concerned” about this Sunday’s Grammy Awards. He said if CBS won’t promise to institute a “minimal delay” to snip crude language or behavior, some affiliates might decide not to air the program. “Someone,” he warned, “is going to try to top” Jackson. Grammy officials said in a statement that they are committed to a live broadcast.

MTV made its name in the trophy-show business with a spirit of volatility and edgy spectacle. Long before the lip-lock between Madonna and Britney Spears became a signature shock for 2003, there was Prince performing in rump-revealing pants (1991), Diana Ross groping the breast of Lil’ Kim (1999) or the surreal, extended smooch between Michael Jackson and then-wife Lisa Marie Presley (1994).

MTV president Van Toffler said Monday that the network “went into the halftime show with the intention to have a positive message,” referring to segments that encouraged young people to vote. “We had a message, and it got hijacked.”

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Times staff writers Bob Baker, Sam Farmer and Larry Stewart in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Staff writer Jube Shiver contributed from Washington, D.C.