The Fox network has sunk to a new low

Later this month, Fox will broadcast a two-part special in which O.J. Simpson will reveal how he would have murdered his wife, had he actually done it:

"O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened" will be broadcast over two nights, Monday, Nov. 27, and Wednesday, Nov. 29. Fox airs "House" on Tuesdays and nobody messes with House. Not even O.J.

"If I Did It" is also the title of the former pro football player's new book that, Fox said yesterday, hits bookstores Nov. 30 -- just in time for the holiday gift-buying season, ho, ho, ho. And who wouldn't love to find a copy of O.J.'s sordid sort-of hypothetical confession in his Christmas stocking on the morning of the day in which we celebrate the birth of baby Jesus?

And, in one of those incredible coincidences that make covering the TV industry so fulfilling, the book is being published under the Regan imprint, headed by Judith Regan, who will conduct the interview with O.J. on Fox. And her publishing outfit, ReganBooks, is a division of HarperCollins, which is owned by News Corp. -- which also owns Fox!

Fox didn't divulge details of the interview other than to say it was "wide-ranging," "no holds barred" and "unrestricted" and that "Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade." He was acquitted in the criminal trial that gripped the country in 1995 but found guilty in a later civil trial.

O.J. denied he was writing this book, so I thought the TV special might be some kind of hoax - but here's the official Fox website. (Technically, maybe Simpson wasn't lying, since I'm sure he didn't actually write it.)

Has the Fox network finally come up with something that even the most devoted trash-TV fans won't watch? We'll find out in a couple of weeks. Personally, I don't think it will be as heavily-viewed - or as morbidly fascinating - as this O.J. special.

[originally posted to The VHS Chronicles]

Damian P.

Posted by damian at November 15, 2006 02:58 PM