Parents are miffed that ABC aired a sex scene on the show Scandal just moments after the kid-friendly Halloween special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which meant that if kids didn’t change the channel quickly enough, they might have seen some steamy action between Olivia and Fitz.
“Shame on ABC for putting a peep show next to a playground,” Parents Television Council president Tim Winter said in a statement. “In less than 26 seconds, we were taken from the Peanuts pumpkin patch to a steamy Scandal sex scene. Twenty-six seconds, boom. Unless parents had the remote control in their hand, thumb on the button and aimed directly at the TV screen, they didn’t have a chance.”
“The juxtaposition of a reliably classic family-friendly children’s cartoon special like the Great Pumpkin — a huge family draw every year for decades — with such a graphic bedroom scene is unjustifiable,” Winter continued.
So for the kids who got their first glimpse of the Olivia Pope on Halloween: Welcome to Shondaland.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- How Kamala Harris Knocked Donald Trump Off Course
- Introducing TIME's 2024 Latino Leaders
- George Lopez Is Transforming Narratives With Comedy
- How to Make an Argument That’s Actually Persuasive
- What Makes a Friendship Last Forever?
- 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
- Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
- The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024
Write to Charlotte Alter at charlotte.alter@time.com