mrschimpf said:...I think the commercial load was meant for the pre-empted World News broadcast, as the race would have been well over by the time it came to the air, so they had to make those advertisers happy...
Hmmm... Not sure how that works... Also, I don't recall seeing spots for the garden variety pharmaceuticals that usually clog up the advertising palate on the network news shows during the week, so I don't think this theory sits with me... Did ABC know that the Wheldon death announcement would be made at 6 PM ET? (For the record, the local news started just after 6:30 PM, at least in New York; I guess they still could have went with World News since there's a decent window.)