ViacomCBS - 'I Can't Breathe' Vingette in memory of George Floyd
At 5 p.m. Eastern and Pacific today, ViacomCBS’s entertainment and youth brands (MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, BET, Pop TV, CMT, VH1, Logo, and Smithsonian) and CBS Sports will cease programming for eight minutes and 46 seconds to protest the death of George Floyd.
The time is symbolic, of course, as it is the same length of time that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin ground his knee into Floyd’s neck and prevented him from breathing despite his entreaties.
The networks will not merely be observing a moment of silence. They will air a devastatingly visceral visual and auditory representation of Floyd’s pain, with the sound of natural breath punctuating the words “I can’t breathe” responding in rhythm with the breath.
Floyd pled for his life by saying “I can’t breathe.”












