You know that television show KOMO took all that money for and then refused to air? The regional chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has nominated Rick Steves for a Northwest Emmy for hosting the show, Marijuana: It’s Time for a Conversation. The infomercial was a strict policy discussion about marijuana prohibition, but some television stations refused to air it based on objections to its content.

"It supported that people smoke marijuana," Jim Clayton, KOMO's vice president and general manager, said at the time. The station collected thousands of dollars to record the program at the KOMO studios, which received advanced scripts with the plan to air the show, but then refused once filming ended. "Smoking marijuana is illegal and we don't promote things that are illegal on our television station," he said last August. "We don't tell people to go rob banks, either."

KING and KONG television would only run the program at 1:00 a.m. KOMO and KIRO refused to air the program at all.

“The networks’ refusal to sell us time when we could engage more viewers on the issue of our nation’s failed drug war strengthened my conviction that contributing to this project was good citizenship,” Steves said in a statement.

“It’s a nice validation for Rick that this is an important project for him to be involved in,” says Alison Holcomb, drug policy director of the ACLU of Washington, which produced the show. Marijuana: It’s Time for a Conversation—which didn't air nationally, and thus isn't eligible for a national Emmy—also won two Silver Tellys (the highest award) and a Bronze Telly from the Telly Awards.