Television drama FBI pulls season finale after Texas shooting tragedy
LOS ANGELES - American television network CBS pulled the season four finale of television drama FBI, following the school shooting in Texas that saw 19 children and two teachers massacred on Tuesday (May 24).
The episode had been due to air that same evening, and would have seen the show's cast of federal law enforcement agents work to prevent a school shooting.
A rerun of a previous episode was broadcast instead, and it is unclear if the pulled episode will be broadcast on a later date.
The drama's official website describes it as a "a fast-paced drama about the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
It is produced by the Dick Wolf, the award-winning producer behind the long-running Law & Order series of procedural dramas.
On social media, American entertainment personalities were quick to react to the tragedy in Ulvade, Texas.
Actor Matthew McConaughey - who was born in Ulvade - made a statement on Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday calling gun violence "an epidemic we can control".
"As Americans, Texans, mothers and fathers, it's time we re-evaluate, and renegotiate our wants (versus) our needs," he added, presumably a reference to the country's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Fellow Texas-native Selena Gomez took to Twitter to vent her frustration over gun violence in the United States, saying: "If children aren't safe at school where are they safe?"
According to media reports, the 19 victims of the Ulvade massacre were all in a single classroom where the gunman had barricaded himself.
He has been identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. He apparently shot his grandmother at home before his rampage at Robb Elementary School.
The tragedy follows on the heels of another mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, earlier this month. It left some 10 people - almost all of whom were black - dead at the hands of a self-declared white supremacist, after he opened fire in a supermarket.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now