Brits love to swear and Erin Doherty’s expletive-filled winners speech at the Golden Globes could land CBS in some hot water.
After Doherty picked up the award for Best Performance By a Female Actor in a Supporting Role On Television for her role on Adolescence, some of her sailor language sneaked onto the broadcast.
“I made a promise to my mum I wouldn’t swear but what the fuck. Sorry, mum,” she said.
Doherty also swore when she won an Emmy for the same performance in September, although that one was bleeped. “Thank you to the Academy you’re all f**king stunning,” she said.
Theoretically, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could fine the Paramount-owned network as it prohibits indecent or profane content between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. Whether it will actually get into trouble depends on whether there are complaints. In the past decade, FCC fines have been rare.
The Ellison family, which owns the company, might be close with President Trump but his administration has looked for ways to punish the entertainment business in recent months.
Doherty beat The White Lotus’ Carrie Coon, Parker Posey and Aimee Lou Wood, Hacks’ Hannah Einbinder and The Studio’s Catherine O’Hara
“There’s two group of people that I’d like to talk about: Stephen Graham, Hannah Walters, Jack Thorne, Phil Barantini and Owen Cooper,” she added. “This experience for me was entirely molded from within the interview room of that set for episode three. Each of you lives in every breath of that scene and it wouldn’t be what it is without you and you’re at the core of why I’m so deeply, unspeakably proud to be a part of this gorgeous piece of work.
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“The second group that I’d like to dedicate this to are therapists. Life can be tough, mental health is everything, so thank you to therapists, it was an honor to play one,” she added.
Doherty starred as psychologist Briony Ariston in the Netflix series, featuring in episode three alongside Owen Cooper’s murderer Jamie.
After the Emmy win, Doherty went on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to explain herself. ““You’re not supposed to swear but I kind of just got up there and I saw everyone and I just had to tell them that they were stunning,” she said.
The whole issue of award show expletives came to the Supreme Court twice, the last time in 2012, when the justices struck down fines on Fox Television Stations over expletives uttered by Cher and Nicole Richie during the Billboard Music Awards, as well as nudity that aired on ABC’s NYPD Blue. But the justices did not weigh in on the constitutionality of the FCC policy against so-called “fleeting expletives.” Since then, there has been little appetite on the part of FCC chairs to take on indecency, although the current FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has been critical of the power of networks over their affiliates.
An FCC spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Ted Johnson contributed to this story.