Wednesday, November 25, 2009

LGBT's MIA For GMA?

American Idol finalist Adam Lambert was to sing today on ABC's Good Morning America, but the network said it was canceling the openly gay singer because "we were concerned about airing a similar concert so early in the morning."

The concert that GMA was referring to was the performance Lambert gave at the American Music Awards on Sunday, during which Lambert kissed a male keyboardist, fondled a dancer and had another dancer briefly stuff his face in Lambert's crotch. The performance prompted many complaints to ABC, and the network cut out the brief "oral sex simulation" for its West Coast broadcasts.

"Obviously, I respect their decision - they gotta do what they gotta do," Lambert said Tuesday in an interview with Ryan Seacrest. "It's too bad - I think there were a lot of fans who were excited to come see me. They probably had a lot of pressure coming at them from certain people who weren't happy about it," he said.

Shortly after ABC's cancellation, CBS quickly announced that Lambert would appear on "The Early Show" Wednesday morning both to perform and discuss the reaction to Sunday's appearance. Lambert is also appearing on David Letterman's "Late Show" Wednesday.

While women have often crossed the threshold regarding sexually provocative appearances on television (like Madonna kissing Britney Spears) Lambert's performance was perhaps the first time it has been done by an openly gay man. Keeping kicking down the doors, Adam . . .


UPDATE: CBS also exhibited some fairly lame behavior as well. In replaying the Lambert AMA footage on the Early Show, CBS blurred out the male-on-male kiss-- but amazingly, just seconds later, showed the Madonna-Spears kiss without blurring. Here's the entire segment:

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