OJ Simpson's 'If I Did It' book and film dropped

The highly controversial OJ Simpson book and TV special If I Did It were cancelled tonight.

The news came after a growing backlash against the projects, in which the former football star had been due to discuss how he would have killed his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and and her friend Ron Goldman if he had been responsible for their murders.

Relatives of the pair had been furious about the plans, and a dozen affiliates of the network Fox, which had been set to air the interview over two nights, said they would not show them.

Tonight Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns both Fox and publisher HarperCollins, said the TV show and book had been dropped, and apologised to the victims’ families.

“I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” Mr Murdoch said.

“We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.”

Under a deal worth a reported 3.5 million dollars (£1.8 million), the book had been due to be published next week by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, after the interviews aired on November 27 and 28.

Simpson was to have spoken in hypothetical terms about how he would have committed the 1994 killings.

He was acquitted of murder the following year but was later found liable for the deaths in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family and has failed to pay the 33.5 million dollar (£17.7 million) judgment.

Judith Regan, the publisher of If I Did It, said she considered the book to be Simpson’s confession.

She refused to say what he was being paid for the book.

But the families were furious that he was set to get more publicity.

“He destroyed my son and took from my family Ron’s future and life. And for that I’ll hate him always and find him despicable,” Fred Goldman told ABC’s Good Morning America.

Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister Denise Brown accused Ms Regan of “promoting the wrongdoing of criminals” and commercialising abuse.

The television special had been set to air on two of the final three nights of the November “sweeps“, when ratings are watched closely to set local advertising rates.

Sales of the book had been strong, but not sensational, getting into the Amazon top 20 at one point but falling back to number 51 by the time it was cancelled.