NBC\'s Ebersol Survives Plane Crash, Brits Bash \'Baywatch\', Viacom To Pay Big Money To FCC

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NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol and son Charles survived a plane crash in southwest Colorado on Sunday (Nov. 28) morning. At least two crew members on the 18-seat plane were killed in the crash and, as of Monday morning, rescue workers had yet to find Ebersol’s younger son, Edward.

According to media reports, Ebersol, his sons and three crew members were departing Montrose Regional Airport, near Telluride, heading for South Bend, Ind., where Charles is a senior at Notre Dame. After briefly taking off, the plane went into the road, tearing the cockpit from the fuselage.

Although weather hasn’t immediately been blamed for the accident, the area had recently had a snow storm.

The pilot and a flight attendant were killed in the accident and a co-pilot had been hospitalized in Denver. NBC’s Denver affiliate KUSA-TV reports that Charles Ebersol helped pull his 57-year-old father from the plane. However, rescue workers were searching, late into the day, for 14-year-old Edward, failing to even find the young man’s seat.

Ebersol’s wife, actress Susan Saint James, was not on the plane.

The mastermind of the network’s recent and extensive Olympics coverage, Ebersol joined the NBC family in 1974, following six years ABC. He became at vice president at the network at 28 and has held a variety of executive positions, leading up to his appointment as President of NBC Sports in 1989. Back in December, Ebersol extended his contract with NBC through 2012, a period which will lead up to and include the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.

“Baywatch,” once considered the world’s most popular TV series, is also the worst American television import ever to hit British screens, according to a magazine survey.

The British TV-industry magazine Broadcast recently asked buyers of foreign programs to name the best and worst U.S. imports. The poll was taken to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first American show broadcast in the U.K., an episode of “I Love Lucy.”

Not surprisingly, “The Simpsons” topped the list of best shows from across the pond. The long-running animated series’ cult following in Britain is just as fervid as it is in this country. “Dallas,” “24,” “M*A*S*H” and “The Larry Sanders Show” round out the top five.

“Baywatch,” which ran for 12 seasons in the United States, aired in 140 countries at the height of its run and helped make stars of Pamela Anderson, Yasmine Bleeth and Gina Lee Nolin — not to mention David Hasselhoff. Broadcast notes the show’s popularity but also its ” mind-numbing predictability: beachgoer is saved from drowning.”

Other shows on the worst list are “The Anna Nicole Show,” “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “The Jerry Springer Show” and “Manimal.”

Media giant Viacom has closed out several dozen indecency claims with the FCC — although not the infamous Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident — by agreeing to pay the agency a $3.5 million settlement.

The arrangement with the Federal Communications Commission, announced earlier this week, encompasses several dozen indecency investigations against Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom’s radio unit, and broadcast-TV outlets CBS and UPN. The investigations date back to 2001 and include a claim against shock jock Howard Stern, who announced last month that he’ll leave Infinity in 2006 for Sirius satellite radio, which doesn’t fall under the FCC’s purview.

Others involved New York radio duo Opie and Anthony, whom Infinity fired in 2002 after they broadcast a couple supposedly having sex inside a church. Opie and Anthony have also moved on to satellite radio, signing with Sirius rival XM.

The consent decree between Viacom and the FCC, much like an out-of-court settlement between two parties in a lawsuit, is not an admission of guilt by the conglomerate. As part of the settlement, Viacom also agrees to put in place a plan to ensure compliance with decency standards, including providing its outlets with equipment to delay live broadcasts.

“This consent decree allows us to move forward and to focus our efforts in this area by serving our viewers and listeners with techniques to safeguard live broadcasts, such as cutaways and video and audio delays,” the company says in a statement.

The $550,000 fine the FCC leveled at CBS in September over Janet Jackson’s bared breast at the Super Bowl doesn’t fall under the consent decree. CBS and Viacom are contesting the fine, claiming among other things that the network had no advance knowledge that Jackson was planning the stunt that resulted in her “wardrobe malfunction.”

In separate actions this week, the FCC denied indecency claims made against three TV series no longer on the air: FOX’s “Keen Eddie,” NBC’s “Coupling” and The WB’s “Off Centre.”

Credit: Zap2It

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.