Less than a second stood between British singer M.I.A. giving the finger to 114 million people watching the Super Bowl halftime show and no one noticing at all.
That's how close NBC censors came to preventing the gesture from being seen Sunday night, but the Super Bowl instead wound up with another entertainment oops moment. The gesture swept across social media, showing up in screen grabs and video, reminding everyone of Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction in 2004 when a nipple was exposed ever so briefly to a Super Bowl audience.
Both NBC and the NFL, which puts on the halftime show, apologised.
M.I.A.'s record label said Monday it had no comment and her Twitter account was silent since noting she was in Lucas Oil Stadium with Madonna. And the Material Girl, who invited M.I.A. to appear during her performance of ‘Give Me All Your Luvin'’, had no immediate comment.
The Nielsen Co. said that 114 million people watched Madonna's halftime show, even more than the average of 111.3 million who watched the game. It was the most-watched halftime entertainment show ever.
Criticism of the singer may be exactly what she is after to help break back into the lucrative American market. As well as appearing alongside Madonna and rapper Nicki Minaj on 'Give Me All Your Luvin', she is currently promoting her new single 'Bad Girls' and recently released a video for the track.
The gesture was "so shocking that I had no idea she even did it until NBC issued an apology for it," wrote Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik on his blog.
The digital video recorder maker Tivo said there were no appreciable bumps in playbacks at the time of M.I.A.'s gesture, meaning many people either didn't see it or shrugged it off. Tivo has some 2 million customers in the US, said Tara Maitra, the company's senior vice president.
"I never even noticed," said Joan Kistner, a marketer from Chicago who watched the game. "It wasn't until this morning when I heard the news" and so many people were talking about it that she knew it happened.
"I don't know why they glorify bad behaviour," Kistner said. "Some things should just be left alone. I really think she owes Madonna, who obviously wanted her to be part of the show, an apology."
The NFL and NBC should take steps to hold people accountable for their actions, said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council.
"Most families would agree that the middle finger aimed directly at them is not appropriate, especially during the most-watched television event of the year," Winter said.
Back in M.I.A.'s native Britain, the London Times noted that while all eyes may have been on Madonna at halftime, "it was the extended middle finger of the British hip-hop star M.I.A. that caused the most controversy."
The Guardian wondered whether anyone would really be outraged.
"You'd be forgiven for not having a coronary over the fact M.I.A. gave Super Bowl viewers the finger during her halftime guest spot with Madonna," the newspaper wrote in its music blog. "For most fans, it was probably more shocking to see M.I.A. performing a rehearsed dance routine than flipping the bird."
Indeed, M.I.A. is provocative and an artist taking advantage of all those TV viewers might not be all that surprising. Still, host Gretchen Carlson on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends urged M.I.A. to "get a life" and culture vulture Perez Hilton tweeted: "Think she'll ever be invited on live TV again?"
Jackson's incident raised a storm of controversy and put CBS in hot water with the Federal Communications Commission amid questions about the responsibility of TV networks to police their airwaves. The network and FCC are still fighting over whether CBS should pay a US$550,000 fine.
One person who didn't miss M.I.A.'s message was Marlee Matlin. The actress, who is deaf, tweeted: "When we expected some beautiful sign language during the #SuperBowl National Anthem, we got instead a "sign" during M.I.A.'s rap. Ahem."
Officials at America's leading family decency group The Parents Television Council have blasted M.I.A. for showing her middle finger during the performance, calling the ‘Paper Planes’ hitmaker "desperate" and "selfish" for her actions.
TV executives and National Football League officials have already apologised to TV viewers for the split-second gesture, which censors failed to pick up, and now PTC bosses are taking aim at the hip-hop star in an open letter.
They write, "It is unfortunate that a spectacular sporting event was overshadowed once again by broadcasting the selfish acts of a desperate performer... performers who have based their careers on shock profanity and titillation."
Brian McCarthy, spokesperson for the NFL, has issued a statement apologising for the incident.
"The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing and we apologise to our fans,” he said.
Meanwhile, the directors that worked on Madonna’s ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ promo have insisted that the American football themed video is purely incidental. The All-American promo accompanying the song was released two days ahead of Madonna’s Super Bowl performance, but Megaforce claim the idea was conceived separately.
"I think the track has something to do with cheerleading. It's pretty clear that the beginning is a kind of cheering [anthem]," Megaforce’s Clement Gallet told MTV News. "With this one, it felt like there was no point to bring it somewhere else [in terms of visuals] other than where it was. I don't think our cheerleaders are really obvious.
"We were aware that this video, this track was supposed to be aired during the Super Bowl, but we never felt or we were never even asked to make something in relation to the Super Bowl. And I think it's just — it's not a coincidence, we had the Super Bowl in mind — but we are not doing a video about Super Bowl."
AP / WENN.com / Cover Media