By M&C Smallscreen Apr 9, 2008, 0:35 GMT
President Hugo Chavez is the ruler of Venezuela; the diminutive sulfur sniffer of Satan who prefers busty blondes to Bart Simpson.
Chavez EPA/Palacio de Miraflores
Chavez has ordered that The Simpsons are to be replace by Baywatch on Venezualan TV.
Citing decency laws, TV station Televen replaced daily broadcasts of the sitcom with episodes of Baywatch Hawaii.
The animated comedy had been airing at 11 a.m. on weekdays, an all-age-groups time slot that risked the dissemination of "messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents."
The National Telecommunications Commission reported receiving viewer complaints, though not verified.
"It had to be taken off," Televen spokeswoman Elba Guillen said, adding that it would be up to State dictated station management to find a new time slot for The Simpsons. "They consider it to be a series that isn't appropriate for that time because it isn't appropriate for children."
Station general manager Perez Nahim told the Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias on Friday, when the change went into effect, that the station itself never received Simpsons-related complaints, so he hoped it would continue to have a strong following once it's rescheduled.
"We are hoping it will continue to have a good rating, because The Simpsons worked very well—so much so that it had the highest levels of viewership for that morning timetable in the history of the channel," Nahim said.
Baywatch Hawaii, which is what the 10th and 11th (and final) seasons of Baywatch were called, aired from 1999 to 2001.
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