Worst TV Show of the Week Brought to you by the Parents Television Council WARNING: Graphic Content!!! Do NOT push play if you don't want to see the explicit video!!!

Las Vegas on NBC

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas?”  Not as far as NBC is concerned. The network consistently brings the most sensationalized examples of debauchery and hedonism into living rooms across America each and every Friday night.  The January 25^th episode of Las Vegas glorified strippers, and treated as comic fodder unfaithful spouses deceiving their partners and makes a mockery of marital vows.  

The show opens with an extended sequence in a strip club. One stripper is shown completely topless from the front, with only tasseled pasties covering her nipples.  (This was the third instance in two weeks of tasseled pasties being shown on NBC during prime-time programming.)

As the peepshow ends, casino hostess Sam offers to help some of the strip club’s patrons with a problem.  The men have spent the evening with strippers and are afraid their wives will find out due to the state of their clothing.  Sam calls “The Cleaner,” who specializes in cleaning garments and helping people lie about their whereabouts.  He is able to tell which strip club the men have been at just by smelling their shirts.  When the men learn about The Cleaner’s skills at covering up their unfaithful indulgence they tell their friends.  In an instant The Cleaner is swamped with clothes from dozens of men, who don’t want their wives to know what type of sexual activity they have been participating in. 

The Cleaner tells Sam that he can’t continue under the workload that he has unless Sam can convince his grandson, a cleaning prodigy, to join him.  The grandson is initially hesitant because he is committed to working for women’s rights, but he ultimately gives in.  At the end of the show the grandson decides to leave the woman’s group for good when a group of wives approach him about cleaning their panties.  They come to his door holding their panties in hand explaining that they were at the “Thunder Down Under” show and that they got “a little naughty.” 

In a separate plot, a drunken Piper and Mike get married.  The next morning they wake up in bed together.  Although they can’t remember anything from the night before, it is implied that they had sex.  The two seek an immediate annulment as the staff of the casino laugh at them.  At one point Mike wonders whether he should commit to Piper, but his best friend Danny quickly reminds him to look around at all the other beautiful women in the world, discouraging Mike’s decent impulse to take responsibility for his actions. 

The show’s twisted happy ending takes place at an annulment party Delinda throws for the happy ex-couple.  Popular rapper Ne-Yo guest stars and sings at the party, ensuring that younger viewers will understand that it is cool to have your marriage annulled.

This episode of Las Vegas is yet another example of the entertainment industry’s false depiction of reality, and demonstrates Hollywood’s commitment to undermining our culture and desensitizing viewers to the most offensive and harmful of content.  Stripping is not family entertainment. Infidelity is not without consequence. Marriage is not an insignificant action, to be entered into nonchalantly. Further showing the industry’s contempt for its audience, this episode was rated TV-14 D, with no “S” descriptor, in spite of the graphic depiction of strippers and implied drunken intercourse. For all these reasons, Las Vegas is truly the Worst of the Week.