Janet Jackson's Nipplegate: 10 Years After the Controversial Super Bowl Halftime Show - Rolling Stone Rob Sheffield ranks all the Super Bowl halftime shows ever, from worst to best December 9th, 2003 For the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show at Houston’s Reliant Stadium, MTV – producing their second straight halftime performance – recruits a lineup that includes Justin Timberlake , Nelly, Diddy, Kid Rock and Janet Jackson. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue says in a statement at the time, "We are pleased that a star like Janet Jackson will join the roster of entertainers who have made the Super Bowl Halftime so special." February 1st, 2004 Even before the Janet incident, Kid Rock riled up the TV audience by wearing sleeveless stars-and-stripes poncho during his portion of the halftime show. Many viewers complained to the FCC that Rock’s wardrobe constituted desecration of the American flag. Sexually suggestive dance moves courtesy of fellow halftime performers Nelly and Diddy also helped put prude viewers on edge before the Nipple-gate opened.

Frank Micelotta/Getty Images February 1st, 2004 (Janet takes the stage) The Janet Jackson-centric portion of the halftime show goes smoothly as the singer performs "Rhythm Nation" and "All for You." However, producers opted to have Jackson remain onstage for Justin Timberlake’s halftime closing slot. (Similarly, if hometown girl Beyoncé was asked to perform at the halftime instead of delivering "The Star-Spangled Banner," we could have avoided what came next.) The video can be rewatched frame-by-frame and scrutinized like the Zapruder film. There wasn’t much choreography leading up to the moment; Jackson just follows Timberlake around the stage while he sings "Rock Your Body." They briefly dance together as they make their way back toward center stage for the grand finale. Throughout the performance, Timberlake's moves were fluid, as if they’d been rehearsed a million times. However, on the closing "Bet I’ll have you naked. . .," you see his approach to Jackson’s bustier is stilted and unsure. Although a natural righty, he watches as his left hand makes the crucial grab toward Jackson’s wardrobe and pulls on the cue ". .

.by the end of this song." For 9/16ths of a second, millions of viewers see Janet's bare breast and its strange star-shaped nipple shield before Jackson realizes what has happened and covers herself up. Timberlake, red lace in his left hand, looks appalled as producers cut away to a distant long shot and firework display. No one remembers the second half of the Super Bowl. (Seriously, name one down that happened in the 3rd quarter.) The New England Patriots win. Tom Brady is named MVP. The spotlight goes rushing back toward Janet Jackson. Getty Images February 1st, 2004 (after the game) The world waits for some kind of post-game response from Jackson, but the singer immediately flew out of Houston following her performance and before the Super Bowl even ended. Jackson’s spokesperson calls the reveal "was a malfunction of the wardrobe; it was not intentional. . . [Timberlake] was supposed to pull away the bustier and leave the red-lace bra," which was visibly in Timberlake’s hand following the pull.

Jackson also admits that neither MTV nor CBS had any role or previous knowledge in the incident, saying Timberlake’s ripping of the wardrobe was a late addition during their final rehearsal. February 8th, 2004 Just days after the Super Bowl, it’s reported that over 200,000 viewers had contacted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to complain about Jackson's performance. Court documents later revealed that over 540,000 people filed complaints with the FCC about the incident, although that number was inflated by conservative and watchdog groups mass-calling the commission. FCC Chairman Michael Powell calls Jackson’s nip slip "a classless, crass, and deplorable stunt" and promises to take further action. Later in February 2004 The NFL, upset that their Super Bowl was overshadowed by a halftime performance, respond immediately. “We were extremely disappointed by elements of the MTV-produced halftime show," NFL executive vice president Joe Browne said at the time. "They were totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the content of the show.

It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime." CBS and MTV’s parent company Viacom, angered that an unannounced addition to the Super Bowl performance has now cost them all future halftime shows, hits back at Jackson by essentially blacklisting her, keeping her music videos off their properties MTV, VH1, and radio stations under their umbrella. The blacklist spreads to include non-Viacom media entities as well. Every corner of television has an opinion about Nipplegate, but none do it as hilariously as David Letterman. The Late Show host relishes the opportunity to exacerbate his employer CBS' red-faced moment, devoting a week’s worth of opening monologues and Top Ten lists to the infamous 9/16ths of a second. Janet – wearing a revealing red dress – finally visits Letterman’s show on March 29th, 2004. Despite telling him "I don’t want to revisit" the Super Bowl incident, Letterman asks a barrage of Nipplegate questions, as well as "How’s Tito?" America Online spent somewhere in the $10 million range to sponsor the halftime performance, exclusively host video of the event online, and promote their dial-up service.

Following the Janet outcry and the negative press that came with it, AOL was quick to ask the NFL for a refund. "While AOL was the sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, we did not produce it," an AOL spokesman said at the time. "Like the NFL, we were surprised and disappointed with certain elements of the show and in deference to our membership and the fans, AOL and AOL.com will not be presenting the Halftime Show online as originally planned." The NFL then argued that CBS or MTV should reimburse AOL. Meanwhile, McDonald’s, despite finding the halftime show "inappropriate," decided to stick with Timberlake as their celebrity endorser. Dennis Brack/ Bloomberg New Unlike this year, where CBS' broadcast of the Grammys precedes the Super Bowl, in 2004, CBS had the Super Bowl scheduled prior to the Grammys, where Jackson was recruited to present a Luther Vandross tribute. However, following the Super Bowl and the uproar, CBS rescinded their invitation to Jackson. Timberlake, however, was not only allowed to attend the ceremony, he actually won a pair of awards. He did use his acceptance speech to once again apologize for the "unintentional" incident.

A young software programmer at PayPal named Jawed Karim is unable to find any video of the Jackson Super Bowl performance online. Frustrated in his attempts to find footage, Karim and some friends create a venue where people can easily upload and share video. Thanks to the scandal, YouTube is born in 2005. A year later, Google purchases the site for $1.65 billion. While Karim worked on the code that became YouTube, the rest of America was looking for alternative methods to rewind and rewatch and reconcile what they just witnessed. As a result of Jackson’s split-second slip, TiVo subscriptions jump expontentially, and the acronyms TVR and DVR become household terms. March 22nd, 2004 Damita Jo , Jackson’s eighth album, arrives roughly five weeks after her Super Bowl performance. Thanks to the radio and music television blacklist, the LP underperforms compared to Janet’s previous releases. However, and perhaps propelled by all the controversy, Damita Jo still sells enough first week copies to debut at Number Two on the Billboard 200. Despite the backlash, the album eventually goes platinum several times over.

April 10th 2004 Two months after revealing herself to millions, Janet Jackson pulls double-duty as host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live. During one skit, Jackson pokes fun at the Nipplegate scandal while impersonating then-Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. America finally seems ready to move on and forgive Jackson. The FCC, however. . . Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images For the FCC, Nipplegate provided an opportunity to restore order and flex whatever power they had left. Faced with lax broadcast standards for cable TV and satellite radio, as well as the absolute lawlessness of the Internet, the FCC becomes hell-bent on preserving common decency in the family-friendly realm of network television. Thus, screws are tightened everywhere under the body's jurisdiction: Tape delays are lengthened and more frequent and sexually suggestive performances are replaced by less provocative selections. While the aftermath of Nipplegate starts to fade, the FCC will continue to carry its torch for the next half-decade. September 22nd, 2004 The FCC finally issues a $550,000 fine against CBS, the largest fine ever of its kind.

Additionally, the FCC alleges that the incident was planned by Timberlake and Jackson, who acted "independently and clandestinely." Viacom immediately contests the fine. November 24th, 2004 Two months later, Viacom agrees to pay around $3.5 million to the FCC to settle indecency fines from dozens of outstanding penalties, including radio stunts executed by shock jocks Howard Stern and Opie & Anthony. In the settlement, Viacom also agrees to implement more delays in their live broadcasting. However, the $550,000 Nipplegate fine is not included in the $3.5 million that Viacom agrees to pay. Getty Images February 6th, 2005 The age of the edgy All-Star Pop halftime shows come to an end and the reign of Classic Rock takes over as producers go conservative, choosing Paul McCartney to perform at Super Bowl XXXIX. The following years see a parade of established stars: the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, and the Who. The Super Bowl finally goes contemporary again in 2011 with Black Eyed Peas.

September 26th, 2006 Two and a half years removed from Nipplegate, Jackson’s next album 20 Y.O. debuts at Number Two on Billboard's Top 200 album chart in September 2006. Janet also embarks on her first tour since Nipplegate. August 8th, 2006 The Guinness Book of World Records names Nipplegate the "most searched item in Internet history." July 2008 The Third Circuit Court rules in favor of CBS , saying the FCC "acted arbitrarily and capriciously" by levying such a massive fine for what the Third Circuit Court deemed an accidental split-second of nudity. The FCC promise to appeal and take the case to the Supreme Court. September 2009 The Supreme Court opts not to hear case between CBS and the FCC, but they send it back to Third Circuit Court for re-examination . During this time, the FCC argues that the incident was preventative since CBS had tape delay available to them, however CBS counters that the technology was still in its infancy and they were unable to utilize it in time.

November 3rd, 2011 Because the Jackson incident was deemed " fleeting indecency " Third Circuit Court again rules in favor of CBS and voids the fine. In July 2012, Supreme Court once again chooses not to hear FCC’s appeal. February 5th, 2012 Madonna , long a lightning rod for controversy, is recruited by the NFL to perform at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show. While the Material Girl is on her best behavior, her guest and frequent shit-starter M.I.A. promptly gives the middle finger to the millions watching at home. Christopher Polk/Getty Images September 2013 It’s revealed that M.I.A. is battling a $1.5 million lawsuit filed by the NFL after she flipped America the bird. By comparison, CBS was only fined $550,000 by the FCC in a lawsuit that lasted eight years. January 2014 A decade removed from Nipplegate, former FCC chairman Michael Powell admits that the committee acted "unfairly" toward Janet Jackson following the incident. He tells ESPN that the FCC overreacted. "I personally thought that was really unfair. It all turned into being about her," Powell said.

"In reality, if you slow the thing down, it's Justin ripping off her breastplace." The comments are a complete turnaround from Powell’s own words 10 years earlier, when he called Nipplegate "a new low from primetime TV." Singer Janet Jackson 'remains on NFL Super Bowl blacklist' - Sports Mole Singer Janet Jackson 'remains on NFL Super Bowl blacklist' © Getty Images Janet Jackson reportedly remains on the NFL's blacklist after her wardrobe malfunction made headlines back in the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show with Justin Timberlake. By Danielle Joynson , Staff Reporter Filed: Wednesday, August 20, 2014 at 14:32 UK Last Updated: Thursday, August 21, 2014 at 11:55 UK Janet Jackson will reportedly not be welcomed back by NFL bosses anytime soon following her wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl half-time show back in 2004. The American singer had part of her bodice torn off by Justin Timberlake during their performance 10 years ago. As the League consider the lineup for next February's half-time show in Arizona, it appears that Jackson remains out of the picture.

According to TMZ, a statement from the League said: "As for potential acts, we have only ruled out Janet Jackson." Reports have claimed that Rihanna , Katy Perry and Coldplay are being targeted by the NFL for the show, but could be asked to pay to perform. Read Next: Madonna: "I Won't Have Wardrobe Malfunction At The Super Bowl" - Capital Capital Madonna: "I Won't Have Wardrobe Malfunction At The Super Bowl" 2 February 2012, 22:09 She has no plans to follow in the infamous footsteps of Janet Jackson. Madonna has promised that she won't suffer a wardrobe malfunction during her Half Time show at the Super Bowl in Indiana on Sunday (5th February). The 53-year-old singer is set to take to the stage at the event for the first time at Lucas Oil Stadium. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the spectacle, the singer said she had gone to great lengths to put on the best show possible.

"In over 25 years of performing that I've done, I have never worked so hard or been so scrupulous or detail-orientated or freaked out as much as I have had maintaining my sanity and trying to make the most major show at this Super Bowl," she said. Asked about Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction with Justin Timberlake during the 2004 Super Bowl Half Time show, Madonna assured fans there would not be a repeat. "Great attention to detail has been paid to my wardrobe, there will be no wardrobe malfunction - I promise," she said. Madonna is hoping to avoid a repeat of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. Speculation is mounting about who may join Madonna on stage during her performance, with Will.i.am telling Capital FM recently that LMFAO are set to appear. It is also rumoured that Nicki Minaj and M.I.A, who both feature on Madonna's new single 'Give Me All Your Luvin'', could feature during the set. Meanwhile, Madonna's reported Super Bowl set list has also been leaked online, and it includes several hits from her back catalogue.

No Super Bowl malfunctions - Music - Entertainment - theage.com.au No Super Bowl malfunctions Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger says no wardrobe malfunctions this year. Photo: Reuters February 3, 2006 - 10:55AM Mick Jagger told nervous television executives and Super Bowl presenters to relax their fears of another "wardrobe malfunction" when the Rolling Stones perform here at Sunday's half-time show. The rock and roll legends will perform live during the mid-game break when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks meet for the National Football League title in the 40th annual American football championship spectacle. League and telecast officials have been nervous since Janet Jackson's right breast was exposed in an infamous 2004 Super Bowl half-time show mishap the singer termed a "wardrobe malfunction." "Network television, they are always worried about how many times you are going to say F*** on the air," Jagger told reporters today. "We had a bit of a crisis this morning when they heard Aretha Franklin was going to strip during the national anthem," he joked. "All this will be worked out on the night.

They should calm down and stop worrying and take life as it comes." That became easier last year after the NFL tightened control over the show, handing production duties to Don Mischer, who returns this year. British rocker Paul McCartney managed to avoid an unexpected revelation in the 2005 show. While the league and US telecaster ABC have song veto power, the Stones have kept the three-song playlist for their 12-minute performance a secret, twice evading questioners wondering if "Sympathy for the Devil" might be performed. Jagger said the NFL had fumbled the ball by staging a Super Bowl in "Motown" without including talented musicians from the recording legend until Franklin and Stevie Wonder were included in pre-game activities. "The thing about the NFL is they run a good show. Occasionally they make a mistake but they have been quick to rectify it," Jagger said. Wonder was asked if he had ever suffered a wardrobe malfunction. The blind singer replied, "Not that I've seen." The Stones' performance at the 40th Super Bowl comes one week shy of 40 years since the group debuted on American television.

- AFP Janet Jackson | Most Embarrassing Celeb Wardrobe Malfunctions Ever | Us Weekly Most Embarrassing Celeb Wardrobe Malfunctions Ever September 21, 2015 Whoops! Yes, celebs really are just like Us—which is why their clothing sometimes misbehaves! From broken zippers to ripped crotches to shapewear reveals, click through to see Jennifer Garner, Nicki Minaj, Lindsay Lohan, and more suffering from some of the most embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions. Janet Jackson The singer coined the term "wardrobe malfunction" after her infamous performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, when Justin Timberlake accidentally removed a piece of her costume. The Federal Communications Commission even took CBS to court, seeking nearly $600,000 in fines for the breast-baring half-time performance. Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images JANET JACKSON & JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SUPERBOWL 2004. - YouTube JANET JACKSON & JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SUPERBOWL 2004. Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video?

Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Dec 6, 2009 Category CNN.com - Apologetic Jackson says 'costume reveal' went awry - Feb. 3, 2004 Apologetic Jackson says 'costume reveal' went awry FCC to investigate incident at end of halftime show The halftime performance by Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake has led to an FCC investigation. Story Tools VIDEO Singer Justin Timberlake tore off part of Janet Jackson's top, exposing her breast, at the close of the Super Bowl halftime show (February 2) Manage alerts | What is this? (CNN) -- Singer Janet Jackson apologized Monday to anyone who was offended when her right breast was exposed during the halftime show Sunday at the Super Bowl. "The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my halftime show performance was made after final rehearsals," Jackson said in a statement. "MTV was completely unaware of it. It was not my intention that it go as far as it did.

I apologize to anyone offended -- including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL." MTV produced the halftime show, which was broadcast by CBS. Both had issued their own apologies. On Monday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell ordered an investigation of the incident. An estimated 140 million people were watching the show when at the end, pop star Justin Timberlake popped off part of Jackson's corset, exposing her breast. Powell told CNN he was not convinced the incident was an accident. "Clearly somebody had knowledge of it. Clearly it was something that was planned by someone," he said. "She probably got what she was looking for." Jackson spokesman Stephen Huvane said the incident "was a malfunction of the wardrobe; it was not intentional. ... He was supposed to pull away the bustier and leave the red-lace bra." Huvane said an unauthorized copy of Jackson's single "Just a Little While" has appeared on the Internet, so Virgin Records decided to release it Monday. The song is from the album "Damita Jo," set to be released March 30.

MTV posted this tease on its Web site last week: "Janet Jackson's Super Bowl show promises shocking moments." Powell said he was watching the game Sunday evening with his two children and found the incident "outrageous." "I knew immediately it would cause great outrage among the American people, which it did," he said, citing "thousands" of complaints received by Monday morning. "We have a very angry public on our hands." Powell said MTV and the CBS network's more than 200 affiliates and company-owned stations could be fined $27,500 apiece. "I think it's all of their problem," he said. "The law allows you to reach many of the different parties." He said he would like to see the enforcement penalties strengthened to 10 times their current amount. "We all as a society have a responsibility as to what the images and messages our children hear when they're likely to be watching television," he said. "I don't think that's being moralistic, and I don't think that's government trying to tell people how to run their businesses.

I don't think you need to be a lawyer to understand the basic concepts of common decency here." Powell said he "expressed my great displeasure" over the incident in a telephone call Monday with CBS President and CEO Mel Karmazin, who "promised to cooperate" with the investigation. Although Karmazin expressed "a great deal of regret," Powell said those sentiments would not deter the investigation. The stock price of Viacom, the parent of CBS, rose more than 1 percent Monday. "CBS deeply regrets the incident that occurred during the Super Bowl halftime show," the network said in a statement. "We attended all rehearsals throughout the week, and there was no indication that any such thing would happen. "The moment did not conform to CBS broadcast standards, and we would like to apologize to anyone who was offended." A statement from MTV said the tearing of Jackson's costume "was unrehearsed, unplanned, completely unintentional and was inconsistent with assurances we had about the content of the performance. "MTV regrets this incident occurred, and we apologize to anyone who was offended by it." Despite its apology, MTV did not hesitate to promote the incident after the fact.

A Web page headline said: "Janet Jackson Got Nasty at the MTV-Produced Super Bowl Halftime Show." Continuing, the Web page said, "Jaws across the country hit the carpet at exactly the same time. You know what we're talking about ... Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and a kinky finale that rocked the Super Bowl to its core." Not everyone was buying the apologies. "They can apologize all they want, but this was wrong, and heads are going to fall," said New York-based media strategist Robbie Vorhaus, who once worked for CBS. Performing together in a routine that had included a number of bump-and-grind moves, Timberlake reached across Jackson, flicking off the molded right cup of the bustier, leaving her breast bare except for a starburst-shaped decoration held in place by a nipple piercing. Timberlake issued his own apology. "I am sorry if anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime performance at the Super Bowl," he said. "It was not intentional and is regrettable." The White House also weighed in on the issue. "Our view is that it's important for families to be able to expect a high standard when it comes to programming," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue joined the chorus. "The show was offensive, inappropriate and embarrassing to us and our fans. We will change our policy, our people and our processes for managing the halftime entertainment in the future in order to deal far more effectively with the quality of this aspect of the Super Bowl." AOL, owned by CNN parent company Time Warner, attempted to distance itself from the dispute. "While AOL was the sponsor of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, we did not produce it. In deference to our membership and the fans, AOL and AOL.com will not be presenting the halftime show online as originally planned." Story Tools Wardrobe Malfunction -- In the Beginning, There Was a Nipple 0 In the Beginning, There Was a Nipple Ten years ago, 90 million people watching Super Bowl XXXVIII saw Janet Jackson's breast for nine-sixteenths of a second. Our culture would never be the same. by Marin CoganILLUSTRATION BY NATHAN FOX 01/28/14 null This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Feb. 3 Music Issue.

SUBSCRIBE IF OUR CHILDREN or our children's children ever dig up a time capsule from the beginning of the new millennium, they will find that in February 2004, America collectively lost its damn mind. Here's what they'll see: Janet Jackson on a stage in the middle of Houston's Reliant Stadium, wearing a leather kilt and bustier, surrounded by dancers in corsets and bikini tops and bowler hats and helmets, looking like a ragtag steampunk army of cabaret chorus girls and Highlander extras and BDSM enthusiasts. They're grinding their hips, Janet is caressing her corseted torso and 71,000 Super Bowl spectators are screaming themselves hoarse for the beatboxing of a 23-year-old white boy. Justin Timberlake emerges from an elevated platform beneath the stage in too-big khakis and a too-big jacket -- pfff-ti-pff-ti-chk! pfff-ti-pff-ti-chk! pfff-ti-pff-ti-chk! pfff-ti-pff-ti-chk! -- and a brass band blasts him into "Rock Your Body," a song from his first solo album.

He and Janet are romping across the stage, pausing their cat-and-mouse game every so often to work her booty into his hips. They're singing call and response: Talk to me boy ... No disrespect I don't mean no harm Talk to me boy ... I can't wait to have you in my arms Talk to me boy ... They're marching up the steps, to a platform in the middle of the stage. Hurry up 'cause you're taking too long Talk to me boy ... Better have you naked by the end of this song. You know what happens next. Justin reaches over, grabs a corner of Janet's right breast cup and gives it a hard tug. Her breast spills out. It's way more than a handful, but a hand is the only thing Janet has available to cover it, so she clutches it with her left palm. The breast is on television for 9/16 of a second. The camera cuts wide. Fireworks explode from the stage. Cue the end of halftime. Cue the beginning of one of the worst cases of mass hysteria in America since the Salem witch trials.

Justin Timberlake never fully explained his role in exposing Janet Jackson, and Jackson said later she was upset that he remained mostly silent when people blamed her for Nipplegate. David Phillip/AP Images David Phillip/AP Images THE WOMAN WHO planned the show wasn't on the field to see her months of work go up in flames. Salli Frattini, an executive producer at MTV, which was contracted by the NFL to produce the halftime concert, was supervising from the production truck outside the stadium. She and her crew were riding high on the adrenaline of pulling off a 12-minute spectacular of music and choreography and pyrotechnics. When it ended, the truck erupted with cheering and high-fiving and hugging. The euphoria lasted just a few seconds before the phone rang. The officiating booth was calling, wanting to know whether they'd really just seen Janet Jackson's boob. The man on the phone was Jim Steeg, who had been head of special events for the NFL since the late 1970s, overseeing the evolution of the halftime show from a small-scale production featuring marching bands and dancing snowflakes and local heritage celebrations to full-scale rock extravaganzas starring the likes of Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Aerosmith.

When Nipplegate happened, Steeg was sitting next to the league's head of officiating, who was TiVo-ing the event. "He rewound it for me, and then I immediately called Salli," he says. "You could hear everyone screaming and hollering because what they pulled off and accomplished was over. I said to Salli, 'Did you see what just happened?'" "We were like, 'Uh, we're playing that back right now,'" Frattini says. "There was lots of chaos in the truck, and we played it back and we were like, 'Oh, s -- . What just happened?'" Frattini stepped out of the truck and immediately ran into then-CBS Sports president Sean McManus. He looked her in the eye and asked gravely, "Did you guys know?" Frattini promised she had no idea that Jackson was going to be exposed. "Okay. That's what I needed to know," she remembers him saying.

Whether Frattini or the higher-ups at MTV, CBS and/or the NFL knew what was coming remains one of the enduring mysteries of the event -- at least that's the generous explanation for why millions of people watched the clip with the same intensity as that of JFK conspiracy theorists poring over the Zapruder footage. To this day it remains the most watched video in the history of TiVo, becoming such a touchstone that "wardrobe malfunction" soon earned a dictionary definition and Nipplegate became a household word. (For the record, not much areola was even visible underneath Jackson's large starburst nipple shield.) Wardrobe Malfunction The behind the scenes story of the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. The common assumption by the media and by the public was that the flash of nudity was an attention-grabbing publicity ploy; the question was by whom. Some signs seemed to point to MTV. Before the show, a few of the producers had entertained themselves by mock-ripping their clothes off at Timberlake's final line. And in rehearsals, they had tried a move where Timberlake tore off Jackson's kilt.

Then there was an article on MTV's website beforehand in which Jackson's choreographer promised "shocking moments." To this day, everyone involved maintains the conspiracists have it wrong. The mock-ripping? That was their natural response to Timberlake's closing lyric -- "better have you naked by the end of this song" -- not in anticipation of anything he might do. The tearing off of the kilt? It didn't look good, so members of the production team say they killed it and never discussed another option. The article? The site was later updated with an editor's note: "At the time of this report, MTV thought that the 'shock' was going to be the as-yet-unannounced appearance of Justin Timberlake as part of Janet's performance. Janet Jackson's subsequent performance was not what had been rehearsed, discussed or agreed to with MTV." In an on-camera apology after the event, Jackson backed up the producers, insisting she decided on the big reveal after the final rehearsal, without the knowledge of anyone at MTV.

Timberlake was meant to pull off a piece of the costume, she later explained, but it was supposed to reveal only a lacy red undergarment; unfortunately, as it played out, that undergarment came off in Timberlake's hand too. Timberlake also apologized but never offered his own version of events other than to coin the term "wardrobe malfunction." After the show, MTV producer Alex Coletti tried to find Jackson. "I tried to get in touch to make sure she was okay," he says. "Her entire camp stopped answering the phones. I finally got to her tour manager, and they were already at the airport." At first, Coletti assumed the singer was so mortified that she fled immediately. Then a new thought dawned on him. "No, she set us up and she's out of here," he says. "That was the last time I've seen or heard from Janet Jackson." Ultimately, it didn't matter to the NFL whether the producers knew: The league decided that MTV would never again be involved in a halftime show. Says NFL corporate communications VP Brian McCarthy: "We turned over the keys to MTV, and they crashed the car." On Capitol Hill, then-FCC chairman Michael K.

Powell called the halftime show "a new low for prime-time television." Now he says the outrage was overblown. Michael Kleinfeld/UPI Photo/Landov MICHAEL POWELL, THEN the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was watching the game at a friend's house in northern Virginia. He's a football fan and was excited to relax and watch the game after a rough couple of weeks. "I started thinking, Wow, this is kind of a racy routine for the Super Bowl!" he says, his voice pitching up in bemusement. "He was chasing her kind of with this aggressive thing -- not that I personally minded it; I just hadn't seen something that edgy at the Super Bowl." Then it happened. Powell and his friend gave each other quizzical looks. "I looked and I went, 'What was that?' And my friend looks at me and he's just like, 'Dude, did you just see what I did? Do you think she ... ?' And I kept saying, 'My day is going to suck tomorrow.'" Powell went home and watched the moment again on TiVo. The same thought kept running through his mind: Tomorrow is going to really suck, he remembers thinking.

"And it did." Typically, the FCC's work is of little interest to people outside of the community of businesses, lawyers, lobbyists and Hill staffers involved in telecommunications policy. But L. Brent Bozell had been on a mission to make on-air indecency a cause for national outrage, and Jackson's breast was his biggest opportunity yet. Nine years earlier, Bozell had founded the Parents Television Council, an advocacy group dedicated to forcing advertisers, networks and the FCC to keep sleaze out of family-friendly TV programming. Just a year before Super Bowl XXXVIII, Bono, accepting a Golden Globe for best original song, called the moment "really, really f -- ing brilliant" on a live NBC broadcast. PTC members filed a complaint, triggering an FCC investigation. Nine months later, Powell's group determined that Bono's fleeting F-word didn't warrant a network fine. The PTC vehemently disagreed, and with its encouragement, members of Congress took to the House floor to call for action against indecency on TV.

Two months before the Super Bowl, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling on the commission to reconsider the Bono decision (the FCC reversed its judgment in 2004 but still did not issue a fine) and to more strictly police indecency standards generally. "We realized we'd really hit a nerve out there, and we weren't alone in this thinking," Bozell says. "That was all before Janet Jackson. Jackson was what lanced the boil." Previously, Powell says the FCC received only a handful of indecency complaints a year. It received 540,000 about Janet Jackson's breast. The PTC launched a campaign to punish everyone involved. "An outraged public needs to make this backlash long and commercially painful," Bozell wrote in an article. "The NFL needs to back off its trend of treating its fans with the lowest common denominator of sleaze. CBS affiliates need to worry about license revocations if these offenses keep repeating themselves. And MTV ... ought to just be thrown out with the rest of the rusty garbage." Powell, a Republican whose father is Colin Powell, the then-secretary of state, hates when people remember the Nipplegate controversy as Republican-driven.

For one of the only moments in recent memory, Congress was united, passing a bipartisan bill increasing the maximum fine for incidents of indecency from $32,500 to $325,000. In a Texas congressional race several months after the Super Bowl, a Democrat circulated newspaper clips about his Republican opponent -- who'd written an op-ed decrying Jackson's behavior -- streaking as a college student. Michael Powell himself immediately decried the show in no uncertain terms. "Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the television for a celebration," he said in a public statement. "Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt." He announced an investigation of the show, promising it would be "thorough and swift." He made the rounds in the media to underscore his point. Illustration by Noma Bar Today, Powell runs the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the major trade association for the cable-TV industry. He loves reading about the latest developments in behavioral economics, neuroscience and mindfulness. He's 50, but he looks no older than 35, dressed in gem-toned pants and glasses that look like they came from Warby Parker.

Sitting in his office at the NCTA's sleek modern building in DC, he does not look like a man who wants to spend his time policing boobs on TV. He does not sound like a man who wants to spend his time policing boobs on TV. Since leaving the FCC in 2005, he has declined almost every interview request to talk about boobs on TV. But 10 years later, Powell is finally ready to admit that he never wanted to police boobs on TV. "I think we've been removed from this long enough for me to tell you that I had to put my best version of outrage on that I could put on," he says, shrugging his shoulders and rolling his eyes. "Part of it was surreal, right? Look, I think it was dumb to happen, and they knew the rules and were flirting with them, and my job is to enforce the rules, but, you know, really? This is what we're gonna do?" Powell was driven in part by fear: The indecency statute is part of the criminal code, so someone convicted of broadcasting indecency could be imprisoned -- as could an artist, at least theoretically. "As a leader, I thought that was really wrong," Powell says.

"I didn't want this snowball, this juggernaut, to turn into pressure to go after Janet and Justin Timberlake. I thought we were getting into dangerous territory." Launching an investigation into the halftime production quickly gave him some ground to stand on when members of Congress started asking why he wasn't going after Jackson. Frattini and her team had to hand over their laptops; the government wanted access to every document and every bit of communication among the show's creators. The FCC found nothing to suggest they had planned the moment and settled on a combined $550,000 fine for the 20 Viacom-owned stations -- then the largest against a broadcaster in the commission's history. Powell ended up testifying on the wardrobe malfunction more than anything else in his entire career, including his confirmation hearings. "I ended up testifying for nine hours on just this," he says. "On 9/16 of a second." OF COURSE, OUR children and our children's children will never need to dig up an actual time capsule to find out about the wardrobe malfunction. As soon as they hear about the time Janet Jackson's breast was exposed on live TV, they'll watch it online.

And the reason they'll watch it online is that in 2004, Jawed Karim, then a 25-year-old Silicon Valley whiz kid, decided he wanted to make it easier to find the Jackson clip and other in-demand videos. A year later, he and a couple of friends founded YouTube, the largest video-sharing site of all time. Across the web, the moment went viral, back when that phenomenon was still somewhat novel. (Facebook was launched three days after the halftime show.) "Janet Jackson" became the most searched term and image in Internet history. And "we put TiVo on the map," says MTV producer Coletti -- TiVo enrolled 35,000 new customers in the aftermath of Nipplegate. When Coletti was having trouble with his service, he let slip to a customer service rep that he was the guy who produced the Super Bowl halftime show. TiVo gave him lifetime service and a special number to call in case he had any trouble. The moment created other seismic cultural changes as well.

Howard Stern -- already a shock jock goliath with an audience of millions he built, in part, on testing the boundaries of the FCC -- was dropped from Clear Channel two months following the Super Bowl, after the FCC fined the company $495,000 for a broadcast in which Stern discussed "sexual" and "excretory activity." "Janet Jackson's breast got me in a lot of trouble," Stern told his listeners. Six months later, he signed a contract with fledgling satellite radio, framing the decision as an opportunity to break free from broadcast's conservative constraints. As of early 2014, SiriusXM had 24.4 million subscribers, and Stern is credited as the media figure most responsible for introducing a new era in radio. While Timberlake's career as a solo artist took off after the Super Bowl, Jackson's suffered. When her album Damita Jo debuted the month following the halftime show, low play counts led to online rumors that she'd been blacklisted by Viacom, the parent company of MTV and VH1. The record was her lowest-selling album since 1984. She withdrew from the Grammys under pressure, while Timberlake performed and accepted two awards.

Throughout the controversy, the bodice-ripped Jackson suffered much more than the bodice-ripping Timberlake. "I personally thought that was really unfair," Powell says. "It all turned into being about her. In reality, if you slow the thing down, it's Justin ripping off her breastplate." Some critics saw gender and race at play and thought Timberlake ducked the heat. In a 2004 remix of the Jadakiss song "Why?" rapper Common asks, "Why did Justin sell Janet out and go to the Grammys?" Timberlake himself said he believed Jackson had taken a disproportionate amount of the backlash. "I probably got 10 percent of the blame," he told MTV. "I think America's probably harsher on women, and I think America is, you know, unfairly harsh on ethnic people." After initially apologizing for the incident, Jackson told Oprah in 2006 she regretted taking the blame for an unplanned accident. Informed of Timberlake's comments, Jackson smiled uncomfortably and confirmed that she felt her co-star hadn't done enough to defend her. "Certain things you just don't do to friends," she said. Clearly, it remains a sore subject for both artists.

Jackson told Oprah she would never comment on the controversy again. When recently asked by The Mag about what he had taken away from the incident, Timberlake laughed nervously as his representative signaled to end the interview. "I take that I chose not to comment on it still, after 10 years," he said. "I'm not touching that thing with a 10-foot pole," he quickly added. Meanwhile, for the people behind the media spectacle, the controversy never really went away. After the incident, Frattini and Coletti both left MTV to start their own production companies. "That was the last year I did the [MTV Video Music Awards]," Coletti says. "I'd produced six VMAs, all the highest-rated ones at the time. And all of a sudden, I wasn't that guy anymore." The incident transformed how they work too: Frattini says she's warier of talent, insists on knowing everything about their wardrobe before they perform and is careful to note every step of her production work in writing, cognizant that if anything goes wrong, government investigators may be reviewing her notes. The wardrobe malfunction changed live television production too. Before then, most broadcasters employed audio delays only, but many began delaying video as well.

The Grammys broadcast the Sunday after the Super Bowl used a five-minute delay, which Frattini says was an extreme example of a larger trend. Longer delays are more expensive and require more effort, but they became part of the cost of putting on live television. Meanwhile, the NFL created contracts with more specific language about appropriate conduct, including wardrobe, and set stiff penalties for breaking them. The next six Super Bowl halftime performers were middle-aged men. One year after the league broke that streak with the Black Eyed Peas at Super Bowl XLV, M.I.A. raised her middle finger during Madonna's 2012 performance and was sued by the NFL for $1.5 million. The most common assumption was that the flash of nudity was just an attention-grabbing ploy. The question was by whom. David Drapkin/AP Images THE MOST LASTING impact of the wardrobe malfunction was the way it highlighted the government's inability to regulate indecency in our new digital democracy. The FCC has never had major control over regulating the media -- the First Amendment prevents the commission from having a say over what appears in the newspaper, on cable networks or online.

But in 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that because broadcasting was "uniquely intrusive," the FCC had an obligation to regulate indecent content during the hours when children might be watching. The idea, Powell says, was that "you never know what's going to come on, and so your kid can be in the audience, and then boom! By the time they get hit with it, the harm is done and your kid is blind." Super Bowl Coverage Super Bowl Central That gives broadcasters an amorphous obligation to act "in the public interest" and puts the FCC in the awkward position of judging indecency. It's hard to imagine a legal theory less well-suited to the modern era, when TV guides are as anachronistic as rotary phones because everyone watches on demand, online and on their phones. "The Internet and YouTube have exploded the notion of balkanized living rooms -- the Supreme Court's original thesis that you can have this sanctity of your home and nothing should be able to invade you in that way," Powell says. "I just think that's probably a bygone era." As society has reached a consensus that there's no way to control everything children see, the number of indecency complaints has decreased significantly.

When Miley Cyrus twerked at the Video Music Awards last summer, the FCC received only 161 complaints (of course, as a cable channel, MTV doesn't answer to the commission anyway). The moment became fodder for celebrity bloggers and morning show chatterboxes but was never treated as a problem that needed to be legislated away. The PTC dutifully issued a statement denouncing MTV for "sexually exploiting young women," but no national outcry resulted. Perhaps not coincidentally, CBS never actually paid a fine in connection with Nipplegate -- an appeals court ruled in 2008 and again in 2011 that CBS could not be held liable for the actions of contracted performing artists and that the FCC had acted arbitrarily in enforcing indecency policies. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2012. So for Powell, the halftime show represents "the last great moment" of a TV broadcast becoming a national controversy -- the last primal scream of a public marching inexorably toward a new digital existence: "It might have been essentially the last gasp. Maybe that was why there was so much energy around it. The Internet was coming into being, it was intensifying.

People wanted one last stand at the wall. It was going to break anyway. I think it broke. "Is that all good? Probably not, but it's not changeable either. We live in a new world, and that's the way it is. "They said the same thing when books became printed, right? They said it was the end of the world. "But it wasn't." Join the conversation about "Wardrobe Malfunction." Follow Marin Cogan on Twitter: @marincogan . Follow The Mag on Twitter: @ESPNmag , and like us on Facebook . Follow ESPN_Reader on Twitter: @ESPN_Reader . Janet Jackson's Wardrobe Malfunction: Remembering Nipplegate on Its 10-Year Anniversary | E! News Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com Who could ever forget that Janet Jackson is responsible for the phrase "wardrobe malfunction?" Nearly 10 years ago, on Feb. 1, 2004, 90 million viewers were unexpectedly treated to a televised peep show when the singer's right breast was exposed for nine-sixteenths of a second.

Justin Timberlake had joined the music legend on stage to sing his third solo single, "Rock Your Body," during the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show. As the pop star crooned, "Bet I'll have you naked by the end of this song," he reached over, grabbed a corner of Jackson's right breast cup and gave it a tug, exposing her boob. Jackson quickly grasped her chest as the camera cut wide and fireworks exploded from the stage. And that's when s--t hit the fan (pardon the expression). PHOTOS: Celebrity wardrobe malfunctions "Justin was supposed to pull away the rubber bustier to reveal a red lace bra," Jackson's rep said at the time. "The garment collapsed and her breast was accidentally revealed." CBS forced Jackson to release a video apology, saying, "My decision to change the Super Bowl performance was made after the final rehearsal. MTV, CBS [and] the NFL had no knowledge of this whatsoever and unfortunately, the whole thing went wrong in the end. I am really sorry if I offended anyone. That was truly not my intention." The Federal Communications Commission received more than 540,000 indecency complaints as a result of Jackson's nip slip.

The FCC, in turn, fined CBS $550,000. The network appealed the fine, which was ultimately voided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2011 ruling. A case to reinstate the fine was refused in 2012. The incident, later dubbed "Nipplegate," nearly ruined Jackson's music career. NEWS: Preview 18 of 2014's best Super Bowl commercials so far KMazur/WireImage In retaliation, several television and radio entities—including Viacom, CBS, MTV, Infinity Broadcasting and Clear Channel—blacklisted Jackson's eighth studio album, Damita Jo, released on March 22, 2004. The 22-track record was her lowest-selling album since 1984. A decade after the incident, former FCC chairman Michael Powell said the Super Bowl controversy had been blown out of proportion. "I didn't want this snowball, this juggernaut, to turn into pressure to go after Janet and Justin Timberlake. I thought we were getting into dangerous territory," he told ESPN .

PHOTOS: Inside the 2014 Super Bowl parties Powell ended up testifying on the wardrobe malfunction more than any other issue else in his entire career. "I ended up testifying for nine hours on just this," he said in disbelif. "On 9/16 of a second." Jackson was treated more harshly than Timberlake, much to Powell's chagrin. "I personally thought that was really unfair," he said. "It all turned into being about her. In reality, if you slow the thing down, it's Justin ripping off her breastplate." When the native Tennessean was recently asked about the Super Bowl performance, he declined to defend Jackson. "I take that I chose not to comment on it still, after 10 years," Timberlake told the magazine. "I'm not touching that thing with a 10-foot pole." The scandal became one of the most talked about moments in pop culture history, and it also inspired several young entrepreneurs. Jawed Karim, for example, wanted to make it easier to find the Nipplegate clip and other in-demand videos. A year later, he co-found YouTube, the largest video-sharing site of all time.

The incident also made "Janet Jackson" the most searched term, event and image in internet history, as well as the most searched person and term of the year in 2004 and 2005. NEWS: How to fake your way through a Super Bowl party Jackson talked about the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show scandal for the first and last time in a 2006 Oprah Winfrey Show interview. She admitted that she and Timberlake hadn't spoken since the incident, though her partner in crime had "reached out to speak with me." Asked if she felt Timberlake failed to adequately stick up for her after the incident, Jackson replied, "To a certain degree, yeah." The singer insisted that the incident was accidental. "So much more important things were going on in the world. And the focus was on my breast? That didn't make any sense to me," Jackson said. It may not make sense to Jackson, but 10 years later, people are still talking about it. The same can't be said for the musicians who succeeded her as Super Bowl Halftime Show performers—no offense, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Brazil E! Is Everywhere This content is available customized for our international audience.

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Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction - msnbc - Countdown with Keith Olbermann | NBC News Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction Full coverage of the un-coverage Below: Advertise David Phillip / AP Entertainer Janet Jackson, left, covers her breast after her outfit came undone during the half time performance with Justin Timberlake at Super Bowl Sunday Feb. 1, 2004. By Keith Olbermann + - Well, look it a this way, in an incredible role reversal, a Jackson is accused of having their clothes intentionally ripped off them by a boy. Quoting Justin Timberlake, “I am sorry if anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the halftime of the Super Bowl. It was not intentional and is regrettable.” Justin, did you say all that? What a guy. On Monday night, Janet Jackson says it was all her fault that the costume reveal at the end of the number was only supposed to reveal a red lace garment under the bodice. "The decision to have a costume reveal at the end of my halftime show performance was make after final rehearsals," the statement, which is on the MTV Web site. "MTV was completely unaware of it.

It was not my intention that it go as far as it did." Unfortunately, two prominent sources, one in television entertainment, one in television sports, tell COUNTDOWN that they were informed long before it happened, that Janet Jackson‘s breast or breasts would be bared briefly during the Super Bowl halftime show. The sources said it was not at all clear that the actual producers in charge of the CBS telecast knew in advance. But, the song Timberlake was singing contained lyrics suggesting that the hearer would be naked before it was over. As of midnight on Monday, MTV, the cable network that produced the disaster was still congratulating itself for the stunt on the web site. It had last week promised, "shocking moments" at the halftime show. MTV and CBS have both denied it was preplanned, MTV and CBS are both part of the same media corporation, Viacom. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating. Janet Jackson‘s statement on the MTV website not only absolves them, but it also affixes a time for the decision as after the final rehearsal, which would leave no room for prearrangement. It has got everything but a waiver of liability the indemnifies Viacom Inc.

and all of its subsidiaries, and especially Kurt Loder. What is it from her, though? Was it the proverbial cry for help? Or was she taking a hit for her brother by throwing herself on the grenade as the weirdest Jackson of the day? And oh, by the way, the number of people who watched was apparently the largest in Super Bowl history: 140 million in this country alone. The National Football League is livid. That would be the same National Football League that three decades ago introduced the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders who have never been as covered up as was Miss Jackson Sunday night. The flash could not have come at a more delicate moment in the struggle over where the line should be drawn about what you see and hear on broadcast television. The Jackson event was like the proverbial spark over the tinder box. Just last week, the FCC set a record fine of $755,000 for the crudities of a Florida radio announcer. Days earlier, for the second year running, a major Hollywood figure, this time, Diane Keaton, swore live on the telecast of an awards program. The commission is under intense pressure from conservatives and from not-at-all conservatives to forcibly clean up broadcast TV.

Question: Which singer had a "wardrobe malfunction" at the half time show at the 2004 Super Bowl?
Answer: Janet Jackson