The show, 'Married by America', features a group of single adults who agree to marry even though they have never met. The episode in question, broadcast in April last year, featured one of the groom's bachelor parties where events got out of hand.
"The material is gratuitous, vulgar and clearly intended to pander to and titillate," said the Federal Communications Commission's order, which was approved by five commissioners.
THe FCC is proposing that each of the 169 Fox TV stations in the US $7,000, although it could fine News Corporation the total $1.2m instead.
The regulator has come down heavily on broadcasters in the wake of the Nipplegate incident, where Janet Jackson exposed her right breast during a dance routine with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl, one of the most watched TV events of the year in the States. Timberlake later described the incident as a "wardrobe malfunction".
CBS, the US television network, was slapped with a $550,000 (£306,814) fine following the incident, with 20 CBS-owned TV stations paying $27,500 each -- the biggest fine ever levied on US broadcaster.
It has lead to a new wave of Puritanism in US broadcasting. The most famous victim has been shockjock Howard Stern, who responded to a clampdown on his smutty talk first by ranting at length about freedom of speech, and then by quitting free-to-air broadcasting for pay-radio service Sirius.
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