The moment that put Janet Jackson’s career on hold and Justin Timberlake’s career skyrocketed

‘The Incident: Janet Jackson’s Change’

Production manager Jodi Gomes
Reporter / Senior Producer Rachel Abrams
Annunciator Alan Light

Watch our new documentary, streamed on FX and Hulu.

The term “wardrobe glitch” has been part of our vocabulary ever since Janet Jackson’s right breast popped up at the end of the series. 2004 Super Bowl tournament program.

When Justin Timberlake tore part of Jackson’s chest in front of 70,000 people at Belieant Stadium in Houston, more than 140 million TV viewers had to gasp – if they noticed.

It happened so fast (the moment lasted nine or sixteen seconds) that even some of the show’s producers in the middle of the break missed it until their phones and phones all over the US start ringing.

“Did you see what just happened?” Jimamonds, the National Football League’s director of special events, asked Salli Frattini, the MTV executive in charge of halftime programming. She had to rewind the tape just to be sure.

“We looked at close-up shots. We were looking at the wide shot, and we all stood there dumbfounded,” recalls Frattini in a new documentary by The New York Times.

Was that an accident? Has it been planned yet? Is that a stuntman?

The uproar that followed – from the NFL, from the Federal Communications Commission, from politicians and their allies – was the culmination of a national debate at the time about what was acceptable. on the American airwaves and who will decide.

In our documentary, which premiered last Friday and is now streaming on FX and Hulu, we hear from former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and executives MTV, who are responsible for producing the show midway through. And we speak to a number of politicians who have seized on this moment to try to rein in content they deem inappropriate.

We also look back at Jackson’s long career, seemingly never to recover, while Timberlake flourished. And we examine how issues of race and sexism mix to consume the legacy of one superstar and propel the cause of another to the next level.

Manufacturer monitoring Liz’s Day
Producer Fred Charleston, Jr., Anthony McLemore, Timothy Moran
Co-production Melanie Bencosme
Director of Photography Asad Faruqi
Video Editor Geoff O’Brien

“The New York Times Presents” is a documentary series that represents the journalism and unparalleled insight of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time.