Late night on AFN is about to get steamier, grittier and all-around more grown-up.
Beginning Aug. 7, AFN Spectrum will show top HBO series uncut and uncensored on Saturday and Sunday nights, said Larry Marotta, AFN’s director of programming.
It’s a big step for AFN, which shows versions of R-rated movies that have been edited by movie studios to take out nudity, profanity and other material not suitable for a general audience.
The move comes after AFN aired HBO’s miniseries “The Pacific” uncut in April. The series about Marines during World War II includes profanity, nudity and violence, but AFN viewers loved it, Marotta said.
“The only e-mails that we got from the audience were that they wanted to see it earlier because it was on too late,” Marotta said. “So that gave us the sense … that it was time that we included the top-performing programming from the premium channels as well.”
So, AFN considered what else it could give viewers who want programming from premium channels.
“We looked at the Nielsen ratings to determine what programs from the premium channels were most popular and went by that,” Marotta said.
Starting next month, AFN viewers will be able to see:
• True Blood• Treme• Entourage• Hung• Big Love• Curb Your Enthusiasm• Bored to Death• Eastbound & Down
Descriptions of each show are available here.
Until now, AFN has avoided such shows in favor of programs suitable for young teenagers. The new shows will air at 10 p.m. or later and will be on a channel that will allow parents to use the V-chip to block programming that they don’t want their children to see, he said.
