Networks Stay with News for
at Least 48 Hours
By Steve Gorman
Wednesday September 12 9:32 PM ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The four
major U.S. networks kept nonstop news going for a second straight
day on Wednesday and NBC said it would delay its new fall prime-time
lineup to continue fully reporting the worst terror attack ever
on U.S. soil.
Depending on how events unfold, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox said they
were looking to resume some form of regular programming by
Thursday, after 48 hours of wall-to-wall, commercial-free news
reports on the twin assaults against New York City and Washington
and their aftermath.
But NBC was the first network to push back the roll-out of its
entire prime-time schedule for the fall season, which was
scheduled to begin Monday, Sept. 17.
The season premieres of returning series and debuts of new shows
will now be delayed by at least a week, the network said in a
brief statement, citing ``the recent tragic events in our country.''
``Further developments could alter this plan,'' NBC said.
ABC and CBS executives were contemplating similar moves, the
networks said.
``We're taking this hour by hour, day by day,'' CBS spokesman
Chris Ender told Reuters. ``Everything is going to be dictated by
the news coming out of New York and Washington.''
The smaller Fox network is less affected because the roll-out of
its fall lineup follows a more staggered, drawn-out schedule,
with many of its new shows still not slated to debut for several
weeks.
Officials for the networks spoke of their ``responsibility'' to
use the public airwaves to keep America informed in times of
crisis. And all four broadcasters declined to discuss how much
money they are losing by foregoing commercials by providing
uninterrupted news coverage.
``This is why we have free, over-the-air television. In times of
crisis, the public needs information and it's our duty to provide
it for them,'' ABC spokesman Kevin Brockman said. ''This is a
national emergency.''
The sense of duty even led the four broadcast networks and
cable's CNN to set aside their usual rivalry and agree to share
news footage of Tuesday's events.
The deal was struck at the suggestion of ``60 Minutes'' executive
producer Don Hewitt and was pitched to the other networks by CBS
News president Andrew Heyward, CBS News spokeswoman Sandy
Genelius said.
``The thinking behind it was that this story is a national
emergency, and the only guideline here should be informing the
public and not worrying about any competitive issues,'' she said.
Ratings figures showed that the demand for news was certainly
strong. Prime-time news conference carried by the networks
between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Tuesday drew an average total audience
of nearly 60 million U.S. viewers, according to data from Nielsen
Media Research Inc. That was nearly twice as many viewers as
those who watched Big Four programming during the same time the
previous Tuesday.
NBC is a unit of General Electric Corp. CBS is a unit of Viacom
Inc., ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Co. . Fox is a unit of
News Corp. Ltd. .
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Webpagee last updated on: December 22, 2001 @ 8:00 P.M. CT.
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