US Attack Sparks News Marathon
Millions of viewers in the UK were glued to their television sets yesterday as the horrific events in America unfolded. Normal scheduling was suspended as broadcasters offered almost uninterrupted coverage of what was described by Paul Fox, the former managing director of the BBC as “the most momentous event ever seen on live TV.”
As the second highjacked plane crashed into the World Trade Centre shortly after 2pm yesterday afternoon an almost uninterrupted news marathon spanning UK terrestrial channels began.
ITV ‘s coverage began just after 2pm and ran throughout the day until 7pm, breaking only for Emmerdale at 7pm. A special news programme, Terror In America, was shown at 7.30pm, followed a brief return to normality with Who Wants To Be A Millionaire at 8pm. An extended version of the News At Ten began at 9pm and was followed by coverage of the day’s UEFA matches, which were broadcast with what was described as a “sombre tone”.
Channel 4 also ran continual news, cancelling its daytime schedule. Special bulletins were run in the evening and this morning’s Big Breakfast was cut from the schedule to make way for a rolling news service which was shown without ad breaks.
Commenting on the extent of the coverage a spokesperson for Channel 4, said: “I don’t think anyone’s seen anything like that unfold in front of them on live TV before. We watched on giant TV screens in the office, which came to a complete standstill, to see something like that is absolutely dumbfounding.”
Channel 5 ran live news from 2.30pm up until 6pm when the soap hour was shown as normal. A special hour-long news programme aired from 7pm before the channel returned to its normal schedule at 8pm.
The BBC’s coverage, which was bolstered heavily by BBC News 24, also ran from 2pm and paused only for Eastenders at 7.30pm. David Dimbleby hosted an America Under Siege special, which ran from 8.30pm until 9.30pm and coverage returned to News 24 later in the evening
Programming is expected to be heavily disrupted again today as broadcasters attempt to keep viewers up to date with the rapidly unfolding events of a situation which is being likened in scale to Pearl Harbour.
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