The Fifty Shades movies have a large and avid fanbase worldwide. However, the movie is still basically a flick about sexual relations and kinky Red Room stuff, and some people don't really want to watch a movie like Fifty Shades of Grey in the least, much less when it's airing on a widely broadcast public service TV station before 10 p.m. This is exactly what happened recently with Ireland's RTE station, which opted to air Fifty Shades of Grey as its Sunday night movie of the week. The title is certainly not the flick people seem to have been expecting over the weekend, and as often happens when some viewers aren't pleased, some audiences took to social media to share their distaste for the airing, with comments ranging from annoyed to somewhat amused. Like this one:
Another mother joked around about having to explain to her kid what a "sadist" was when the commercial for the movie aired. Then, this woman seemed pretty disturbed, but only because the movie was on when she was in the same space as her mother.
Others thought inserting BDSM into their Sunday night viewing was more amusing than anything else, with one user noting,
To be fair, RTE did warn viewers of the impending airing and the nudity present in the movie on social media (and via ads) ahead of time. So, if you happened upon Twitter before the airing, you would have seen this:
Per The Sun, RTE did get one formal complaint after the movie's airing, and RTE says it will respond within 20 days, which is apparently how formal complaints are usually handled. An additional couple of people called to give negative feedback after the sexually charged movie aired at 9:30 p.m. on the network. All in all, it could have been far worse, complaints-wise, but it's still interesting to hear how a national public service TV station aired a TV-MA program during regular broadcast hours on a Sunday night during the summertime. In the States, Fifty Shades of Grey and other programs are available on pay-cable channels, but the idea of an ABC Sunday Night movie or something like PBS airing the Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson starrer without some major censoring is unthinkable here. The closest thing Americans have probably gotten to Fifty Shades of Grey on broadcast TV is some SNL sketches.
Regardless of what some viewers may think about TV airings, the movies are a big deal worldwide, and the final movie in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Freed, just hit Blu-ray, DVD and Digital a few months ago. You can order your own copy, here (opens in new tab).
