Editing The Gong Show (section)

====Cancellation====
Despite its popularity and respectable ratings for a non-soap-opera midday show, NBC cancelled ''The Gong Show'', with its final episode broadcast on July 21, 1978. At the time, there was much speculation as to the network's true motivations for dumping the popular show. Barris has commented that he heard that NBC's official reason was because of both "lower than expected ratings" and a desire by the network to "re-tailor the morning shows to fit the standard morning demographics" (the move coincided with the arrival of new NBC president [[Fred Silverman]], who was well known for such programming overhauls and was reported to have disliked ''The Gong Show''). ''[[America Alive!]]'', a magazine-style variety program hosted by [[Art Linkletter]]'s son [[Jack Linkletter|Jack]], replaced ''Gong''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/25/archives/new-jersey-pages-tv-america-alive-makes-debut-on-nbc.html|title=TV: 'America Alive' Makes Debut on NBC|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 July 1978}}</ref>

Following the cancellation, many critics and industry analysts – including [[Gene Shalit]] and [[Rona Barrett]] – reported having heard comments from within the NBC programming department from "sources preferring anonymity" that the true reason behind the cancellation was Barris's refusal to tone down the increasingly risqué nature of the show. According to the sources, after the "Popsicle Twins" incident<ref name="have-you-got-a-nickel-1" /> and an episode in which Jaye P. Morgan spontaneously exposed her breasts on air during a [[Gene Gene the Dancing Machine]] segment, Barris had been given an ultimatum by the network's [[Standards and Practices]] department to deliver less racy shows for his audience, which included many younger viewers, or NBC would cancel the program.