FCC to Examine ABC TV Spot

The Federal Communications Commission announced Wednesday that it would examine a television promotion for the ABC drama “Desperate Housewives” after viewers complained about the spot’s depiction of an apparently nude actress.

A spokesman for the FCC, which oversees the broadcast industry, said the agency received several telephone calls and e-mails from viewers who were offended by the risque spot, which aired just before ABC’s “Monday Night Football.”

While the FCC can fine broadcasters who air material deemed indecent, government officials said it was unclear whether such action would be taken against ABC, which is owned by Burbank-based Walt Disney Co.

“It will be something we ... will have to look at; but that’s far from saying what the result will be,” FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell said on the cable network CNBC.

The promotion showed Philadelphia Eagle receiver Terrell Owens and “Desperate Housewives” star Nicollette Sheridan in an empty locker room. Sheridan, who was dressed only in a towel, asked Owens to skip the upcoming Philadelphia-Dallas game for her. When he declined, she dropped the towel and was shown from behind from the waist up, apparently naked.

“Aw, hell,” Owens said. “The team’s going to have to win this one without me.”

ABC has apologized for the TV spot. Still, one legal expert speculated Wednesday that it might have been a ploy to draw the FCC into a legal battle to decide how far the agency can go in its crackdown on indecency.

ABC is “testing how far the slippery slope goes before you get into constitutionally protected speech,” said John G. Johnson Jr., a Washington communications lawyer who represents several TV station owners. Especially since last week, when some ABC affiliates decided not to air the epic World War II film “Saving Private Ryan” for fear that its graphic violence and language would prompt reprisals from the FCC, Johnson said, “It seems we are getting into more grayer areas.”

The FCC defines indecent material as anything that “depicts or describes ... sexual or excretory organs or activities” in patently offensive ways. But the agency has warned broadcasters that it also was concerned by material that “relies principally on innuendo to convey a sexual or excretory meaning,” as the ABC spot seemed to do.

“Desperate Housewives” is the highest-rated new program of the new television season. It attracts an average audience of 21.8 million viewers.