WWW- A steamy intro to “Monday Night Football” – featuring “Desperate Housewives” star Nicollette Sheridan – generated so many complaints from viewers that ABC apologized yesterday.
The sexy spot had Sheridan, clad only in a white towel, flirting with Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens in the Philly locker room.
Sheridan provocatively asks Owens to skip the game with the Dallas Cowboys in order to spend time with her.
When he asks her what she has on under her towel, the camera pans to the towel dropping around her feet and then pans back up to a [presumably] naked Sheridan jumping into Owens’ arms.
Then the shot cut to two more stars of the network’s “Desperate Housewives,” Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman, watching the scene unfold on a television and talking about desperate women.
“We have heard from many of our viewers about [the] opening segment and we agree that the placement was inappropriate,” ABC said in a statement. “We apologize.”
An ABC spokesman would not elaborate on the number of complaints the network received.
The NFL also called the intro “inappropriate and unsuitable for our ‘Monday Night Football’ audience.”
“While ABC may have gained attention for one of its other shows, the NFL and its fans lost,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.
The Eagles said they appreciated ABC apologizing for the segment.
“After seeing the final piece, we wish it hadn’t aired,” an Eagles spokesman said.
But the Towel Affair sure seemed to rev Owens’ engines – the flamboyant wide receiver scored three touchdowns as the Eagles romped to a 49-21 win over the Cowboys.
The controversy comes in the wake of record fines levied against CBS this year after singer Justin Timberlake ripped off part of Janet Jackson’s outfit during the Super Bowl halftime show, exposing her right breast to a TV audience of 90 million.
ABC has broadcast “Monday Night Football” with a five-second delay this season because of the Jackson incident.
According to the NFL, it is not standard practice for the organization to review ABC-produced “Monday Night Football” intros.
“No one in our office had an advance screening” of the intro, said Aiello.
But, he added, “it remains to be seen” whether or not that policy changes.