Breaking News during AM Shows

[lesnessman]

How do the networks handle Breaking News Events (such as Thursday's London incident) between time zones?

I'm assuming the West Coast sees the same East Coast feed of TODAY each day (just tape delayed a few hours).

On Thursday, NBC cut from normal TODAY programming around 8:30am and went into Special Report mode. So -- when TODAY aired at 7am PT, what did viewers see?

In the East at 10am ET, Katie & Matt tossed it to Brian Williams doing an NBC Special Report. Did Katie & Matt then handle a 7am PT live edition of TODAY for West Coast viewers only? What about the portions of TODAY from 7-8:30am ET that East Coast viewers saw -- did the West Coast see them at all?

How common is it for network Morning teams to end up staying until 12 or 1pm ET to re-do an entire Morning Show for the West Coast that may have been interupted by a Breaking News event??

 

[Calgaryperson]

> How do the networks handle Breaking News Events (such as
> Thursday's London incident) between time zones?
>
> I'm assuming the West Coast sees the same East Coast feed of
> TODAY each day (just tape delayed a few hours).
>
> On Thursday, NBC cut from normal TODAY programming around
> 8:30am and went into Special Report mode. So -- when TODAY
> aired at 7am PT, what did viewers see?
>
> In the East at 10am ET, Katie & Matt tossed it to Brian
> Williams doing an NBC Special Report. Did Katie & Matt then
> handle a 7am PT live edition of TODAY for West Coast viewers
> only? What about the portions of TODAY from 7-8:30am ET
> that East Coast viewers saw -- did the West Coast see them
> at all?
>
> How common is it for network Morning teams to end up staying
> until 12 or 1pm ET to re-do an entire Morning Show for the
> West Coast that may have been interupted by a Breaking News
> event??
>
I was watching at one point where at 10am MT, 9am PT time, they said goodbye to the MT viewers but told PT viewers to stay tuned for another hour. I didn't see very many, if any, 'LIVE-PDT' bugs on the show. Granted, I only saw like 5 total minutes of the show.<P ID="signature">______________

Canada TV and College Radio</P>

 

[RockManAC]

> I was watching at one point where at 10am MT, 9am PT time,
> they said goodbye to the MT viewers but told PT viewers to
> stay tuned for another hour. I didn't see very many, if
> any, 'LIVE-PDT' bugs on the show. Granted, I only saw like
> 5 total minutes of the show.

I woke up @ 8:30ish because my WX Radio went off for severe thunderstorms in my area... Today was "Live-EST" at that point, which was 8:30central (9:30 eastern). At 9a they said "Some of you will be going to Brian Williams with a SR and some of you will be continuing with us" then dipped to black for a second and then rolled the Today open and all the bugs were "Live-PDT". Things locally wrapped at 10am when they left the Today show and went into regular programming with Live with Regis and Kelly.

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[RobertMoore]

Well out here in the Seattle area we get a live west coast edition for all 3 network morning news shows. But if breaking news happens before 7am don't be surprised if KOMO-4(ABC), KING-5(NBC) and KIRO-7(CBS) switches to the network feed ASAP. Interestingly KCPQ-13(Fox) uses both CNN and Fox News Channel feeds for their live coverage of worldwide breaking events.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

If the launch of the space shuttle Discovery, now scheduled for Tuesday morning (July 26th) at 10:39 A.M. EDT remains on-schedule, NBC might decide to expand Tuesday's "Today Show" to four hours, from 7 to 11 A.M. local.

If NBC does indeed do this, the 10-11 A.M. EDT hour, which would include the launch, would be broadcast live in all time zones.

If NBC indeed does this, they would have to re-do the on-the-hour and on-the-half hour news updates for time zones where "Today" would continue after the live launch coverage to show replays of the liftoff.

Another example: Although I didn't see it live, some time later, I did see a tape of how ABC News began their coverage of the September 11th, 2001 terorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

At about 8:50 A.M. EDT, "Good Morning America" came out of a commercial, and showed a live shot of the north tower on fire, having just been hit by an aircraft. Co-hosts Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer briefly talked about what was going on, but about a minute and a half later, Gibson said something to the effect of "We're going to pause for a moment to bring the rest of the network aboard for an ABC News Special Report".

After the "Special Report" opening, Gibson returned, welcoming viewers in other time zones and recapping the very few details known at that point.

I suspect the first couple of minutes of CBS and NBC's coverage that day was also seen only in the Eastern time zone, and that they likewise paused their coverage for a few seconds to "bring the rest of the network on-board".

 

[TimInHouston]

> I suspect the first couple of minutes of CBS and NBC's
> coverage that day was also seen only in the Eastern time
> zone, and that they likewise paused their coverage for a few
> seconds to "bring the rest of the network on-board".

I can't speak for NBC, but I was watching KHOU-11-CBS the morning of 9/11 (they broadcast local news with "Early Show" cutins from 7:00 - 8:00am). At approximately 8:50, they generally cut to "Early Show" usually for a Dr. Emily Senay Health report (or at least that morning they did).

About a minute and half into the segment, the morning of 9/11, the "CBS News Special Report" tape cued up (the one that counts down 10-seconds so that their affiliates have time to pick up the feed) then cut to Bryant Gumble reporting on the first crash.

I assumed that they put that countdown tape up to give their affiliates in all time zones a chance to pick up the feed (at the discretion).

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Interrupting Programs For News Bulletins (Was: Re: Breaking News during AM Shows)

Tim in Houston remembers:

> I was watching KHOU-11-CBS the
> morning of 9/11 (they broadcast local news with "Early Show"
> cutins from 7:00 - 8:00am, CDT/CST). At approximately 8:50 (EDT), they
> generally cut to "Early Show" usually for a Dr. Emily Senay
> Health report (or at least that morning they did).
>
> About a minute and half into the segment, the morning of
> 9/11, the "CBS News Special Report" tape cued up (the one
> that counts down 10-seconds so that their affiliates have
> time to pick up the feed) then cut to Bryant Gumble
> reporting on the first crash.
>
> I assumed that they put that countdown tape up to give their
> affiliates in all time zones a chance to pick up the feed
> (at their discretion).

A well-run TV station master-control room not running a network program at the time a news bulletin comes on should be able to cut into the network no later than the moment the countdown reaches "8".

There may be a secondary purpose for having a ten-second countdown before the start of a "CBS News Special Report": The ten-second countdown may also exist so viewers watching can alert anyone else in the house who is not at the TV set to come to the TV, or someone watching another program to change channels.

One example could be a man watching CBS when the regular program is interrupted and the countdown begins. He can then yell to his wife: "Honey! Come Quick! A CBS News Bulletin!", or, if she is watching TV in another room, he could yell: "Honey! Turn On Channel 4! (which is the channel number of WBZ, the CBS station here in Boston) A CBS News Bulletin!". His wife will then have enough time to either run into the room where the TV is or to change the channel on her own TV set, and hear Bob Schieffer (or whoever else is on-duty in the CBS newsroom at the time) begin the "special report".

 

[trainman]

> Well out here in the Seattle area we get a live west coast
> edition for all 3 network morning news shows.

It's very, very uncommon that the West Coast gets the full two or three hours of the network morning shows live; it would pretty much have to be a major news story where the network is in wall-to-wall coverage mode.

What's more common is that, for the West Coast, they'll update the show from the 7:00 opening until the end of that half-hour's newscast, and then the newscasts in each half-hour, but they'll keep the rest of the show the same. However, that happens much less often than the usual status quo of the West Coast getting the entire two or three hours on tape delay.<P ID="signature">______________
From Jim Ellwanger, proprietor of a mailing list for TV Guide collectors and fans</P>

 

[gr8oldies]

Re: Interrupting Programs For News Bulletins (Was: Re: Breaking News during AM Shows)

Is that countdown even meant for air? I remember working at a CBS affiliate about 12 years ag, we had one monitor dedicated to anything CBS needed to tall us, even "CBS will air a special report at 8:38:00am for all time zones".

<P ID="signature">______________
Soon to set the world record for recieving Nigerian scam and phising e-mails!</P>

 

[TimInHouston]

Re: Interrupting Programs For News Bulletins (Was: Re: Breaking News during AM Shows)

> Is that countdown even meant for air? I remember working at
> a CBS affiliate about 12 years ag, we had one monitor
> dedicated to anything CBS needed to tall us, even "CBS will
> air a special report at 8:38:00am for all time zones".
>

Ever since 9/11, both CBS stations I've watched since then (KHOU-11-Houston and more recently, WCBI-4-Columbus, MS) have carried the 10-second countdown with the CBS News theme playing underneath. The anchor usually does the voice over "This is a CBS News Special Report. XX, reporting from CBS News Headquarters in New York").

The few times I've seen the special report (the Pope's election and more recently a London bombings update), they dumped out of "The Price Is Right," a network show (which the Eastern/Central affiliates generally air in the 11:00/10:00 hour). I would assume the countdown is meant for the Mountain/Pacific and Alaska/Hawaii time zones which may be airing a mix of local, syndicated and/or network programming.

 

[danderson4411]

bumping up the thread a little when the Challenger went down i remember John Palmer interrupting "Santa Barbara" wich was a soap opera? it was in 1986

 

[WeatherChannelFan]

More recently, NBC interrupted the Today show three times last week - twice on the 24th and once on the 26th - to report on the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash. NBC also aired their initial Special Report on the Charlie Hebdo shooting back in January right before the Today show, at around 6:45 AM Eastern on January 7 (while my NBC affiliate was airing local news). I'm not sure about CBS or ABC.

 

[danderson4411]

i remember seeing the abc countdown during the last presidential election it was during local news

 

[WeatherChannelFan]

Bumping because we now have a new example to add to this - the Charleston shooting. CBS and ABC both broke into morning shows earlier today with special reports on the shooting (NBC hasn't done so yet, though).

 

[JeeperOne]

Bumping because we now have a new example to add to this - the Charleston shooting. CBS and ABC both broke into morning shows earlier today with special reports on the shooting (NBC hasn't done so yet, though).

There was no need to because the shooting occured THE NIGHT BEFORE !!!

Unless you were talking about a news conference or other development & forgot to mention that.....

Cheers & 73

 

[newsmark]

Unless you were talking about a news conference or other development & forgot to mention that.....

Cheers & 73

There were news conferences the next morning, including the ones to announce the name of the suspect and another to announce that he had been arrested.

 

[1069_KIFR]

CBS This Morning makes it seem like the show is 'Live' on the West Coast. But believe they just edit the open to say "Good Morning To Our Viewers In The West....." Then the Live East Coast Broadcast continues, from there on out.

 

[TheBigA]

CBS This Morning makes it seem like the show is 'Live' on the West Coast. But believe they just edit the open to say "Good Morning To Our Viewers In The West....." Then the Live East Coast Broadcast continues, from there on out.

One of the hosts will usually stick around during the west feed in the event of some actual news. The feature parts of the show wouldn't be affected. The anchors of the evening news shows also stay nearby in the event that they're needed.

 

[blizzard59]

CBS This Morning makes it seem like the show is 'Live' on the West Coast. But believe they just edit the open to say "Good Morning To Our Viewers In The West....." Then the Live East Coast Broadcast continues, from there on out.

That's correct. As soon as the live show ends in the Eastern Time Zone at 9 AM, the anchors will record a new opening mentioning "our viewers in the west." They also normally rerecord any news parts of the show that didn't come off as well as they should, perhaps because of timing, a production error, or an anchor tripping over their words. In some other cases, they might record one or two news stories that have more relevance to the west and use them to replace something that had more of an East Coast relevance.

On any given day, there may be up to half a dozen of these rerecords that then get spliced into the West Coast airing. The result is that the version of the show airing in the Pacific Time Zone (plus Alaska & Hawaii) should actually come across a bit more polished than the version that airs in the rest of the country.

Live shots may or may not also be redone for the west (this goes for both the morning as well as the evening news programs, and for all the networks). Sometimes, especially if the live shot actually comes from within the Pacific Time Zone, the shot will be done live on the West Coast show and air over the original East Coast shot. This requires perfect timing on the reporter's part since the shot will not be lengthened or shortened from the original duration, and on the toss back to New York, the anchor there is prerecorded. Another typical issue with doing this (though this is more of an NBC thing) is if a double box is done during the reporter's toss -- as in, on one side of the screen the viewer sees the reporter, and on another side, the anchor, who acknowledges the reporter. Often these aren't redone if there's a West Coast live shot, so you end up with the situation where the East Coast sees the double box, while the West Coast sees a more awkward scene where the reporter tosses back to the anchor and stands in place while the anchor's acknowledgement originally done within the double box is heard, but not seen.

Another option is to rerecord a new live shot in between the eastern airing of the shot and the western airing. This could be done in cases where the East Coast live shot being prerecorded will be too obvious by the time of airing in the west. In the winter, for instance, live shots are often done before the sun has risen, but by the time those shots would air in the west, the sun usually will have risen. This often is solvable by waiting an hour or two from the original live shot and recording a new one under daylight, which will make the new shot appear more realistic in the west. A further benefit is that backgrounds that may not have been visible under the dark of the East Coast shots will be visible with the West Coast ones.

Lastly, redoing live shots for the West Coast provide additional opportunities to specifically address "our viewers in the west."

 

[formeraa]

Thanks, blizzard59 for the detalis!

I have noticed that the CBS Morning News has backed off its references to "our viewers in the West". When it first started, most of the reporters would specifically acknowledge the viewers in the West (i.e. "Good Morning Charlies and Good Morning to our viewers out West!"). Now, the reporters do not tape the West Coast-specific intro. I actually thought it was great that a network show specifically acknowledged the West Coast, but now they no longer do this. They just record a new intro to the show where Charlie welcomes the viewers in the West. I guess I liked the references to the West.

Several times in the past week, CBS News has interrupted the western feed with a "CBS News Special Report" -- at once right at 7am Pacific Time.