The very title of the upcoming NBC show The New Normal says it all. Yes, this is a show about two men (played by Andrew Rannels and Justin Bartha) who are raising a baby together, but in this day and age, that's not anything to get worked up about. Well, unless you're Salt Lake City-based NBC affiliate KSL, which has announced they won't air The New Normal when it debuts this fall.
Jeff Simpson, CEO of the network's parent company Bonneville International, explained the decision pretty succinctly to The Salt Lake Tribune: ""For our brand, this program feels inappropriate on several dimensions, especially during family viewing time." And this isn't the first time they've made an essentially identical complaint; last fall KSL also refused to air The Playboy Club, which didn't wind up being a big problem since nobody watched the show and it was cancelled after a handful of episodes anyway. But with Glee's Ryan Murphy behind The New Normal, it stands a chance of being a much bigger hit, and KSL may be losing a lot of potential advertising by shielding the show from viewers they assume will be offended by it.
Then again, Utah can be a very conservative place, surprising especially to many of us living on the coast. Though I'd wager that by announcing these boycotts, KSL is less trying to protect their viewers than get some national headlines for themselves-- and maybe spare themselves some angry phone calls in the process. And if Utah viewers really want to catch the show, there's always Hulu.
