CBS paid for Janet Jackson's halftime moment with the FCC's biggest indecency fine

In the final moment of the MTV-produced halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII on February 1, 2004, a costume reveal in Janet Jackson's duet with Justin Timberlake exposed her breast on live television for nine-sixteenths of one second before roughly 90 million viewers. CBS apologized the next day: 'The moment did not conform to CBS broadcast standards.'

The FCC opened an investigation within a day and in September 2004 fined CBS's owner Viacom $550,000 — $27,500 for each of 20 stations, its largest indecency fine ever — after more than 542,000 complaints, finding a 'willful' and 'calculated and deliberate' violation. The fine was never paid: a federal appeals court vacated it in 2008 as arbitrary and capricious, struck it down again in 2011, and the Supreme Court declined the case in 2012 — after eight years and millions in legal fees.

The commercial damage outlived the fine. Jackson was dropped from that month's Grammy ceremony, where CBS said she declined the invitation; her next album Damita Jo became her lowest-selling since 1984; and reporting years later described a quiet blacklist of her music at MTV, VH1 and Clear Channel radio. Timberlake — the other half of the moment — attended the Grammys, won two awards, and his career was untouched.