‘Bones’ Episode Yanked: Fox First Network to Tweak Schedule out of Sensitivity to Virginia Tech Tragedy
College-Based Murder Plot Deemed Inappropriate
Although several networks aired news specials Tuesday night to explore and explain Monday morning’s massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, including ABC’s quickly assembled special Primetime edition “Campus Killings: Tragedy at Virginia Tech,” yesterday Fox became the first network to officially alter its programming schedule out of sensitivity to the rampage when it pulled tonight’s originally scheduled fresh episode of the popular forensic anthropology procedural Bones. The installment, titled “Player Under Pressure,” concerned a murder investigation into the death of a star college basketball player following the discovery of a crushed body near a college’s basketball court.
Given the obvious parallels—both this episode’s central plot and Monday’s rampage occurred on a college campus and involved the untimely murders of college students—Fox took proper action. The network will replace the unaired episode with “Aliens in a Spaceship,” a grueling repeat from January 10 featuring the lead characters Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her “Squint” Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) as they struggle to survive being buried alive by the Grave Digger, an infamous and highly successful serial killer. No announcement has been made regarding when or if “Player Under Pressure” will be rescheduled in the future.
Bones currently airs Wednesdays on Fox at 8pm EST
Bones photo courtesy of Fox
If all television shows containing “sensitive” materials were canceled there would not be a lot to watch.Bones is in our opinion the best program on television. It just frustrates us no end that Fox always seems to find a reason to preempt this show.The Virginia Tech tragedy happened long enough ago that televising Bones episode “PLAYER UNDER PRESSURE” should be shown to inform the public that tragedy`s can happen in the most unlikely places and that we should all be alert for any red flags indicating that such an incident may be in the works.
I agree, Orville, that Bones is currently one of the best shows on TV. And Fox has aired “Player Under Pressure” already — a couple of times, in fact. The originally schedule April 2007 premiere was canceled because of the tragedy, but the network aired the episode a year later, in April 2008, and then again a few months afterwards, in July 2008.