British artist M.I.A., flips her middle finger at a camera during Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show.
INDIANAPOLIS -- There wasn't a wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl halftime show, but there was a naughty action by one of the performers ... and it wasn't Madonna.
M.I.A., who joined Madonna on stage in Lucas Oil Stadium to help sing 'Give Me All Your Luvin',' appeared to flip the middle finger to the camera as the song came to a dirty word, which she stopped short of saying.
PHOTOS | M.I.A. flips middle finger during halftime show
But as you can clearly see in the photo above, instead of saying the word, M.I.A. "flips the bird" toward the camera -- and the millions watching on NBC at home.
NBC was apparently late on its delay and allowed the act to be broadcast -- at least in some areas. Some viewers reported, however, that screens went blank or blurred for a few seconds at that point in the show.
Monday morning, the Parents Television Council issued a statement expressing its displeasure with the NFL and NBC over the incident.
"NBC fumbled and the NFL lied because a performer known as M.I.A. felt it necessary to flip off millions of families," said the statement from PTC president Tim Winter in part. "The mechanism NBC had in place to catch this type of material completely failed, and the network cannot say it was caught off guard. It has been eight years since the Janet Jackson striptease, and both NBC and the NFL knew full well what might happen. They chose a lineup full of performers who have based their careers on shock, profanity and titillation. Instead of preventing indecent material, they enabled it. M.I.A. used a middle finger shamelessly to bring controversial attention to herself, while effectively telling an audience filled with children, 'F- you.'"
NBC issued an apology late Sunday night.
"We apologize for the inappropriate gesture that aired during halftime," NBC spokesman Christopher McCloskey said. "It was a spontaneous gesture that our delay system caught late."
"The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.
No comment on the incident has come from Madonna or M.I.A. at this point.
(USA Today)