Apologies from NFL, NBC after M.I.A. flips bird

For all the finger pointing over M.I.A.'s obscene gesture during the Super Bowl halftime show, it may have happened so quickly that many viewers didn't notice or think much of it if they did.

The gesture was the talk of Twitter for hours Sunday night and still was to some extent Monday. Still, the digital video recorder maker Tivo said there wasn't an appreciable bump in viewers who played back the moment where M.I.A. extended her middle finger during Madonna's performance of "Give Me All Your Luvin'" on Sunday night's show.

Tivo has 2 million customers in the U.S. Spokeswoman Tara Maitra said the company would check to see if more people play back the moment.

The NFL and NBC both apologized for the incident.

The NFL blamed NBC for being not quick enough to censor the gesture, while NBC noted that the NFL is responsible for the content of the halftime show on TV's most-watched annual show.

This was no wardrobe malfunction, nothing like that glimpse of Janet Jackson's nipple eight years ago that caused an uproar and government scrutiny. Instead, in front of some 110 million viewers on NBC and uncounted others online, she flipped the bird and appeared to sing, "I don't give a (expletive)" at one point, though it was hard to hear her clearly.

"The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing and we apologize to our fans," said Brian McCarthy, spokesman for the NFL, which produced the show. He said M.I.A. had not done anything similar during rehearsals and the league had no reason to believe she would pull something like that during the actual show.

The screen briefly went blurred after M.I.A.'s gesture in what was a late attempt — by less than a second — to cut out the camera shot.

"The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show," NBC spokesman Christopher McCloskey said. "Our system was late to obscure the inappropriate gesture and we apologize to our viewers."

Back in M.I.A.'s native Britain, the London Times noted Monday that while all eyes may have been on Madonna at halftime, "it was the extended middle finger of the British hip-hop star M.I.A. that caused the most controversy."

The Guardian wondered whether anyone would really be outraged.