CBS’ president and CEO George Cheeks is addressing the shortage of acceptable closed captions for Dangerous Bunny’s Grammys efficiency and his acceptance speech that adopted throughout the Sunday telecast.
The record-breaking musician opened the Recording Academy’s 2023 awards present with a mashup of his hits “El Apagón” and “Después de la Playa,” through which his Spanish lyrics weren’t translated into closed captions. As an alternative, the phrases “singing in non-English” have been displayed on the screens for many who had captions turned on throughout the efficiency. Later, throughout his acceptance speech for finest música urbana album, the phrases “talking in non-English” have been displayed in components of his speech that have been in Spanish.
In response to U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, who wrote a letter to CBS earlier within the week addressing the captioning error, Cheeks took “full duty” for the shortage of translation for the Latin famous person’s lyrics and eventual acceptance speech. Whereas CBS added Spanish captions to the later exhibiting of the awards present and on Paramount+ since then, those that watched it reside noticed the “talking non-English” captions, which have now turn out to be memes blasted throughout social media.
“Regrettably, errors have been made with respect to the closed captioning of his efficiency and subsequent acceptance speech,” the CEO and president of CBS wrote within the letter, which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. “Our groups at the moment are re-examining the closed captioning course of for all reside leisure occasions on the Community to make sure we correctly caption Spanish-language content material. We’ll preserve you up to date concerning our efforts on this matter.”
Learn the complete letter under:
Pricey Consultant Garcia:
Thanks in your letter and for sharing your suggestions in regards to the Grammy Awards on CBS.
The Grammys is our greatest reside leisure occasion of the 12 months and a night that showcases a variety of numerous artists and voices. We have been proud to open the published with an electrical Spanish-language efficiency by Grammy-winning artist Dangerous Bunny to a nationwide and worldwide viewers.
Regrettably, errors have been made with respect to the closed captioning of his efficiency and subsequent acceptance speech. We labored with a closed captioning vendor that didn’t execute at a typical to which we should always rightfully be held. Regardless, we should always have monitored the scenario extra carefully. A bilingual (English and Spanish-language) real-time reside captioner ought to have been utilized and the phrases used on the display screen have been insensitive to many. I take full duty for what occurred.
As you acknowledged in your letter, our closed captioning workforce labored rapidly to handle the matter that evening, up to date the captioning for the West Coast encore, and later for on-demand playback on our streaming platform. Our groups at the moment are re-examining the closed captioning course of for all reside leisure occasions on the Community to make sure we correctly caption Spanish-language content material. We’ll preserve you up to date concerning our efforts on this matter.
Please be assured that variety in our programming and an inclusive expertise for our audiences will proceed to be prime priorities for CBS.
