TV program featuring Presidential candidate won’t be shown in Iowa

The popular entertainment program “Saturday Night Live” won’t be seen in many parts of Iowa tomorrow night. Most Iowans who tune into the long-running NBC Saturday night hit won’t be able to see the show. All four NBC affiliates in the state of Iowa as well as a station in Rochester, Minnesota that serves north-central and northeastern Iowa have announced they won’t carry the show because this week’s host is Democrat presidential candidate Al Sharpton. Station officials say it would violate federal equal time provisions since Sharpton is one of nine candidates who are seeking the Democrat’s nomination for president, which starts with the Iowa Caucuses on January 19th. Attorneys say the stations would have to offer an equal amount of time to each of the other presidential candidates, and station officials say it would be impossible to give eight other candidates at least 30 minutes of air time. Many of the stations were going to show infomercials during that time slot, but NBC now says they’ll offer a classic S-N-L episode featuring Steve Martin. The NBC affiliate in Omaha says as far as they know, they’ll be carrying the show.