Oklahoma Fox Station Cut Only Mention of Evolution From Cosmos

When Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey premiered on Fox last Sunday, it was the first time in decades that a show dedicated to science was appearing on prime time on a major network. The show’s host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, has a knack for making seemingly non-controversial statements that never-the-less get under the skin of America’s religious conservatives.

Tyson waited until the last ten minutes of the show’s premiere to bring up the theory of evolution. But just before he described how humans “stood up and parted ways from” our ancestors, viewers in Oklahoma City were treated to sharp mid-scene cutaway to a local news promo. After about 15 seconds, when Tyson had finished talking about the human transition to “standing on two feet,” the station returned to the show.MediaIte

News station KOKH FOX 25 said this in a twitter feed

Sunday, during @COSMOSonTV, a local news promo was aired over a portion of COSMOS content. This was an operator error & we regret the error.
6:29 PM - 12 Mar 2014

Does anyone actually buy what they are selling? Watch this and judge for yourself.


The part that was cut said this.

We are newcomers to the Cosmos. Our own story only begins on the last night of the cosmic year… Three and a half million years ago, our ancestors — your and mine left these traces. (points to footprints) We stood up and parted ways from them. Once we were standing on two feet, our eyes were no longer fixated on the ground. Now, we were free to look up and wonder

Is it just a coincidence this happened in Oklahoma, home of anti-evolution laws and repeated attempts to introduce more anti-evolution bills.

Oklahoma ratified "anti-Darwin legislation" in 1923, earlier than any other state in the nation. South Carolina (1921) and Kentucky (1922) had failed to pass similar resolutions prior to the Oklahoma enactment. The evolution controversy in Oklahoma came about as a corollary to a popular movement demanding state-purchased textbooks for grades one through eight. The free textbook concept was strongly supported by the Farmer-Labor Reconstruction League and the Oklahoma Farmers' Union.

In 1923 Gov. John Walton signed a free textbook bill (H. B. 197) that contained an amendment reading "provided, further, that no copyright shall be purchased, nor textbook adopted that teaches the 'materialistic conception of history' (i.e.) the Darwin theory of creation vs. the bible account of creation." This bill and the attached amendment, known as the Montgomery Amendment for its creator, Rep. J. L. Montgomery of Anadarko, passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives by a vote of eighty-seven to two.
See more at: ANTI-EVOLUTION MOVEMENT

Is operator error a codeword for "don't let em hear about evolution"?

Mistake or calculated? Well I am not really worked up about this in all honesty I find this humourous but I got to wonder if this isn't a mistake (which is what I am thinking) then why are they so afraid to air that one peace.

other sources Oklahoma TV station cuts reference to evolution from “Cosmos”
Oklahoma TV Station Cuts Reference to Evolution in Neil deGrasse Tyson's 'Cosmos'

I would like to thank flyingfish for bringing this to my attention.
Link to full episode here IMO an awesome show.

This type of transparent censorship will only sustain the mystery and actually be counter productive.

As a FOX operator myself, I wonder about the MCO on duty and his religious beliefs.

Realistically, there was only one person controlling that area's feed.. the lone operator.

Really easy to say "malfunction" and even write it up that way in the daily event log.

This could be no more than a statement by one person who feels in control of what people should see and hear.


Odd though.

reply to post by TwiTcHomatic


I can easily believe it was an act of one lone operator.

As mentioned before I think it would be counter productive to the anti-evolution stance. Kids especially want to know what is being kept from them and will go to great lengths to attain that knowledge.

Inquiring minds want to know.

I really loved this show and hope it has a major impact on society as a whole. Tyson is a great speaker. I now have a preposition for those right wing religious conservatives.

Since you do not believe in science, you should not be allowed to use the fruits of science's labour.
ie/ Everything nearly. feel free to be amish.

Its really not hard for science and religion to work side by side. Were i a man of god i would become a man of science to attempt to prove the existence of god.

reply to post by Grimpachi


It was a mistake all right, but not in the way they claim.

It's just convenient it happened at the precise time Evolution is mentioned- on an Oklahoma station, ground zero of anti-evolution laws and repeated attempts to introduce more anti-evolution bills..."Whut?"

You know.. after watching the video a couple more times.. this was an auto trigger.

First off, The operator would have had no way of knowing what was about to be said in the episode.

This was a network feed being sent and aired live as it came down. Sometimes (very rarely) we get a look at shows over the sats a couple of hours before they air (generally new series pilots, special non-live programming) just to make sure the feed is good. This did not happen last Sunday.. and if it did not happen at my station, it did not happen at any of them as they are all linked on the same feed.

So, the assumption I made earlier of a statement of the operator does not feel right to me. He just would not have known what was going to be said.

The reason I say it was an auto trigger was because of the clean cut to the promo and the fact it was a news promo.

Being that FOX runs the 10pm news.. between 9:43 - 9:47 is generally when a promo is ran to keep people on the channel for the news.

I think what actually happened here is someone did not change a spot time in the automated playlist resulting in this being played over the feed. Since these spots generally air at the same time every night.. it would be easy to overlook the time still being loaded and auto-triggered.

But... this is just an opinion from someone who does the same job and works with basically the exact same equipment.

reply to post by Grimpachi


Here is a great interview with Tyson on Sagan's influence on him. Tyson, a class act for sure!

Also, The Cosmos is on tonight, a must watch, a true masterpiece.

I remember watching Cosmos many years ago, just watched the first episode, watching the second now.
All I gotta say is FRIKKIN WOW!!!
Did anyone catch the people involved in the show, Branon Brega of Star Trek fame ans shockingly the exec producer is SETH MCFARLANE , of Family Guy fame
All I gotta say is this definately lives up to Carl's vision.
Great FRAKKIN show