Fox affiliates refuse to air O.J. Simpson interview

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

NEW YORK (AP) -- Several Fox affiliates have chosen not to broadcast "If I Did It," the two-part special where O.J. Simpson talks in hypothetical terms about his role in the 1994 killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Lin Broadcasting and Pappas Broadcasting, which own a combined nine Fox affiliates, have said they won't air it. Fox has scheduled the Simpson interview for Nov. 27 and 29.

The television special precedes the Nov. 30 publication of a book where Simpson talks about how he would have committed the murders "if he were the one responsible."

"After careful consideration regarding the nature of the show, as well as the feedback we received from the viewers of northeast Wisconsin, we determined that this programming was not serving the local public interest," wrote Jay Zollar, general manager of WLUK-TV in Green Bay.

WLUK is a Lin-owned station, along with other Fox affiliates in Mobile, Ala.; Toledo, Ohio; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Providence, R.I.

The Pappas stations said they were not interested in helping Simpson profit from the project. Pappas owns Fox stations in Omaha and Lincoln, Neb.; Fresno, Calif.; and Dakota Dunes, S.D.

There are about 200 Fox affiliates across the country.

Scott Grogin, Fox spokesman, said yesterday the network had no comment about the decision by its affiliates.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murder in a case that became its own television drama. The former football star and sports announcer was later found liable for the deaths in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family.

Judith Regan, publisher of "If I Did It," said she considered the book to be Simpson's confession.

Simpson's book deal was a surprise to his attorney, Yale Galanter, who told Newsweek magazine he was angered by the secrecy involving what he called "blood money" his client accepted from Miss Regan.

"I definitely would not have approved this," Mr. Galanter said. "I wouldn't have done it for a gazillion dollars."

Mr. Galanter told Newsweek that Simpson's four adult children -- two from a previous marriage, and two he had with Nicole -- were among the few people who knew about the deal before last week, and he said they approved.

The television special will air on two of the final three nights of the November sweeps, when ratings are watched closely to set local advertising rates. It has been a particularly tough fall for Fox, which has seen none of its new shows catch on and is waiting for the January bows of "American Idol" and "24."

The show is expected to draw high ratings among the curious, but there's some question about how much Fox can take advantage of it, given an expected reluctance of advertisers to be associated with it.

The Fox stations in most of the nation's biggest cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, are owned by Fox, so they would abide by the network's decision on what to air.

Friends of Simpson said that the former Heisman Trophy winner was "long past caring at this point," Newsweek reported.

"I think he's saying, 'You think I did it anyway, so let me make some money off of what you think,' " one friend told the magazine.