The television series Millennium premiered on October 25, 1996 at 10 p.m. on MITV in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The episode that elicited the complaint was the first in the new series. It involved a retired lawman with a psychic ability to "see" the occurrence of criminal offences when exposed to elements relating to the crime. (being in the area where the crime occurred or in an area related to the event, being in the presence of the corpse or surviving victim and so on). Although trying to retire with his wife and daughter in a small unidentified American town, the protagonist reluctantly finds himself drawn into the search for the perpetrator of a series of murders and attempted murders. Some of these events are described in the complainant's letter.

The Letter of Complaint

A viewer wrote to the CRTC on October 28, 1996, shortly after the airing of the first episode. That letter was forwarded to the CBSC on November 8. The viewer expressed her "outrage and concern" in the following terms:

I was immediately offended as soon as the show began. The opening scene was in a busy strip club with several big-breasted, scantily-clad strippers gyrating and "performing" for peep-show customers. The bikinis they wore were very small and barely contained their breasts.

While a stripper [who later will be murdered] performs for a customer she says to him: "you like to watch my body" and "Tell me what you want..." The killer, who is ranting about her going to hell, imagines blood running down the walls behind her and down her forehead. Then, flames begin to shoot up all around her. This is very disturbing and VIOLENT imagery - sex and violence. To watch a stripper wiggling around with vibrant, red blood oozing all around her and on her was deeply offensive. This kind of sick, sadistic imagery is unacceptable.

Next scene, we see the killer go cruising for male prostitutes. He picks one up and we later see him pull a limp body out of his car and place it in his trunk. Later, his body is found charred, decapitated and his fingers severed.

The complainant's letter further describes scenes of a similar genre, in which the protagonist "sees" in his mind's eye the replay of murders as they have actually occurred "in graphic detail". The complainant's conclusion: this was gratuitous, sadistic violence.

Also annoying, a "warning" message regarding the content of this show was a SILENT warning - not audible.

My concern is that this show will be watched by countless children because of when it is aired. I believe we all know the largest audience will be youth...

The media must begin to accept responsibility for the material it presents. IT MUST START TO MONITOR ITSELF. Media, in particular American media is inundating children with sex, violence and aggression. This must stop NOW.

The Station's Reply

As is its customary practice, the CBSC forwarded the letter to the broadcaster for reply. In her letter of November 15, MITV's Program Manager wrote:

Your letter requests media responsibility. As you are aware, Canadian broadcasters have voluntarily established a number of self-regulatory organizations, including the CBSC, which monitor and respond to a wide variety of broadcast issues. In addition, as a federally regulated industry, we are required to adhere to federal broadcast regulations.

Your letter indicated that the first episode of the above-noted program contained gratuitous and sadistic violence. The CAB's Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming (the "Code") defines gratuitous violence as "material which does not play an integral role in developing the plot, character or theme of the material as a whole." Our interpretation of this episode is that the acts of violence were integral to the plot and were not gratuitous. ...

However, in recognizing the content of the programming, MITV aired a viewer advisory prior to the telecast. The advisory at the start of the episode contained both a video and audio message and was as follows: "Viewer Advisory: Due to some graphic and mature adult content, parental discretion is advised." In addition, MITV aired two further viewer advisories, video only, following the first two commercial breaks. The silent advisory you refer to was one of these additional two advisories.

... We wish to advise you that MITV deliberately schedules Millennium at 10:00 p.m. which is no longer considered to be children's viewing time. ...

The Program Manager also said that "it is important that producers are made aware of the opinions of the viewers, especially those as strongly felt as yours" and, to that end, she committed to forward a copy of the correspondence to Twentieth Century Fox/Astral Television, the program's producers/distributors.

The viewer was unsatisfied with this response and requested, on December 6, that the CBSC refer the matter to the appropriate Regional Council for adjudication.