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Watershed
- 41 statements
- 6 feature instances
- 12 referencing feature instances
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The time after which "adult" content can be shown. This is usually defined as programs with intense violence, coarse language, naughty bits, sexuality, lots of explosions, exposed breasts, and characters who die with their eyes open. The watershed varies from country to country. It's typically around 9:00 pm (as in the U.K., Canada and Australia), but it can be as late as 10 pm (as in Germany, Ireland or the United States) or it can be early as 8:30pm (as in New Zealand). Japan has laxer standards in general, but its concept of Otaku O'Clock starts as late as 11 pm or midnight. In many regions, though, the watershed is in the middle of Prime Time viewing; everything before the watershed is "family programming", whereas the shows afterwards are the more "adult" hit shows. This means that just because a show airs after the watershed doesn't mean that a lot of people won't be watching it. The concept was largely popularized by the U.K., which uses the specific term to regulate TV content. (Interestingly, British radio doesn't have a watershed, just a list of prohibited bad words - and even then this only applies if it is likely that children will be listening, stations have gotten away with featuring the explicit versions of songs both overnight and during the day if they can prove they have a very low child audience) In the U.S., the related concept of Safe Harbor refers to a policy of the Federal Communications Commission; it's the time period in which the FCC won't go after you for airing "adult" programming (as long as it's not legally obscene). A similar, although far looser and less formalised, expectation applies to radio. The BBC ran into trouble with the recognised comedy show slots on BBC Radio Four, which traditionally air comedy shows between twelve-thirty and one, and later in the day between six-thirty and seven. For a long time it never occurred to the BBC that its usually sedate and self-regulated radio broadcasting needed the equivalent of a watershed. The content of these shows became an issue from The '80s onwards, when some listeners complained about the language getting earthier and the actual content of the shows beginning to push boundaries. Radio Four then instituted a late-night Saturday comedy slot for the more problematical shows and guidelines were issued as to, for instance, how many times the word "shit" could be spoken at six-thirty in the evening. One promising new show, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, was sent straight to after-watershed broadcast on Radio One for this reason. Similarly, a rule emerged on Radio One that chart singles containing swear words or general bad language should be broadcast bleeped during the day, but could be played in the un-bleeped form later in the evening. As an aside, the term "watershed" comes from agriculture; it refers to an earthen barrier that prevents irrigation water from crossing into a neighboring field, allowing the two fields to run on different watering schedules (and thus house different crops). It's also applied on the larger scale of rivers with a watershed being an imaginary line separating the water that flows into one direction from that which flows into another as in the Continental Divide which separates rivers draining into the Atlantic from those draining into the Pacific. (The above definitions also gave rise to the phrase "watershed moment," which refers to any event that separates two historical periods. This has nothing to do with broadcasting.) Contrast Sunday Evening Drama Series, an unobjectionable, family-friendly series meant to air on Sunday night. |
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Dropped link to MoralGuardians: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to OtakuOClock: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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DBTropes | |
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| Watershed / int_58105f6b | comment |
Russia has an interesting two-step watershed on OTA television. 18+ programming is allowed only from 11pm-4am, and certain kinds of 16+ (namely with any bad words or any sexual situations) is allowed only from 9pm to 7am (under 16+ you are barely allowed to mention the word "sex" in brief, describing the process let alone showing it is out of the question; "bad words" as in the lightest swear you could imagine. The actual "swears" like Russian analogs of Carlin's list entries are banned from media completely even under 18+ rating. ). Cable networks can disregard the watershed, but due to harsh advertisement laws (cable networks with less than 75% original content are not allowed to have any commercials at all) lots of them have OTA affilates in obscure places just enough to qualify as OTA network and retain commercials (thus still have to comply to watershed rules). That being said, some fearless networks (like government-owned Channel One) can sometimes push the envelope, such as famously going for prolonged full-frontal uncensored nudity in The Method broadcast (obviously 18+). | |
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| Watershed / int_627b3897 | type |
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| Watershed / int_627b3897 | comment |
Everybody Loves Raymond ran into some weird watershed-related censorship on British TV. It aired on Channel Four, which wanted to re-air the episodes the next morning for people who missed them, and as such decided to use pre-watershed censorship standards on a post-watershed show. In particular, Channel Four still refuses to air two Season Six episodes, "Marie's Statue" (suggestive artwork) and "No Roll!" (Ray and Debra's sex life). | |
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| Watershed / int_79630e93 | comment |
The Late Late Show was known to hang a lampshade on the phenomenon, especially when Craig Ferguson does a lot of swearing, even though it would be censored anyway. The censors did, however, allow Robot Buddy Geoff Peterson to get away with a hand gesture resembling masturbation because he didn't have genitalia. | |
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| The Late Late Show | hasFeature |
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| Watershed / int_c43df4d8 | type |
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| Watershed / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Although the "watershed" cut-off has been stereotyped as suggesting every show airing thereafter is adults-only, there is no hard and fast rule saying this has to be the case. In the UK, for example, both the BBC and ITV have aired family-friendly programming past the 9 p.m. point. Examples include the 2014 Doctor Who episode "Mummy on the Orient Express" which was scheduled so that the second half of the episode aired past watershed (leading to some complaints), and the historical drama series Victoria which, despite being scheduled for 9 p.m. and touching on topics such as sex, manages to do so without going beyond a PG (or 12) rating. | |
| Watershed / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
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| Watershed / int_c9fecd11 | type |
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| Watershed / int_c9fecd11 | comment |
The British police drama The Bill is an interesting case study. It started out in 1984 as a post-watershed series, meaning that it had liberal cases of sex, violence, and nudity. Then in 1988, the production team decided to move it before the watershed, meaning that everything was toned down and the show as a whole was Lighter and Softer. It ran in this slot for most of its life, before the executives decided to move it back to 9 pm in 2009. Despite this, the show still pushed the boundaries on occasion, resulting in the ITC (The TV regulator of the time) having to produce a PIF (parodying the show) warning people that shows prior to the watershed may sometimes include bad language, if it is justified, although it would not be a common occurrence. |
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| Watershed / int_d68df17d | type |
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| Watershed / int_d68df17d | comment |
Some Top Gear specials would air after the watershed, and the presenters would be aware of it. For instance, in the "Top Gear Ground Force" special, an annoyed James May stopped to verify that the special would be aired post-watershed before dropping a Precision F-Strike. (Well, he tried before a hard cut to Richard Hammond.) | |
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| Top Gear | hasFeature |
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
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Show Business | |
| ANSIStandardBroadcastTVSchedule | seeAlso |
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| Bikini Bar | seeAlso |
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| Ptitle4li39txl4edb | seeAlso |
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| RadarSystems | seeAlso |
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| WaterShed | sameAs |
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| AKBingo! / int_8b6fbb06 | type |
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| Oddities | seeAlso |
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| One Foot in the Grave / int_8b6fbb06 | type |
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| Strictly Come Dancing / int_8b6fbb06 | type |
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| Toumei Shoujo Ea / int_8b6fbb06 | type |
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| Filthy Frank (Web Video) / int_8b6fbb06 | type |
Watershed |
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