WRAL-TV Censors Dave Chappelle On SNL

The Raleigh, N.C. affiliate of NBC censored “Saturday Night Live” in nine different parts of last night’s broadcast, citing language used by comedian and host Dave Chappelle and raising concerns on social media of whether broadcasters could become more wary of edgy content under an administration led by President-elect Donald Trump, reports Variety.

WRAL in February swapped its affiliation with CBS for one with NBC. At the time, NBC touted the move as one that gave the network access to “one of the most powerful and highly rated affiliates in the nation.” The station is owned by the independent Capitol Broadcasting.

During an emotional, post-election broadcast of the venerable “SNL,” however, some of Chappelle’s language proved too much for station executives.  “WRAL-TV has a station obscenity, decency and profanity policy that outlines 10 specific words that will not be broadcast on our air. This policy is based on our own standards in combination with FCC guidelines. Our broadcast operators have a 10-second delay button they can choose to use.

During Saturday Night Live on NBC, guest host Dave Chappelle used 2 of those words on 9 different occasions and they were silenced,” the station said in a statement. “Obviously, SNL is a live show so we had no prior indication about what would be said during the broadcast. We understand this caused disruption during the program. We wanted our audience to know this was a station decision, not the network’s, and why we made that choice.”


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