Excuse me. I know I ought to be able to find this myself, but my Google-Foo is weak today. I have tried, really I have.
Isn’t there a web site that documents what the networks showed on 9-11? Something like “Nickelodeon: Live Feed from WNBC, New York. Comedy Central: Tim & Jerry Reruns.”
I thought it was mentioned in this very forum, but darn if i can find it. Thank you for your kind consideration.
The Vanderbilt TV News Archive gives info for the major channels, but doesn’t include the cable channels, like Nickelodeon.
I’m still doing some looking but my initial searches haven’t come up with anything yet (and I have to head out the door to work shortly).
Thank you Lsura, but that is not it. I know I saw it once. Now, I cannot find it.
If you are looking at what was scheduled on that day, you won’t find it. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CNN suspended regular programming to show special reports from Manhattan. The video of the fires and the collapse were repeated many times throughout the day.
I remember seeing live news coverage on ESPN. Funnily enough, it was that, and not the towers falling, was the moment I realized what a big deal this was.
Pretty much ever cable channel either picked up the newsfeed of whatever news channel was owned by their parent company or signed off for the day. The exception that I remember were children’s channels (Disney, Nickelodeon, etc) which aired normal programing and premium cable channels (HBO, etc). Supposedly the networks lost several billion dollars by not airing commercials for a few days.
ABC and ESPN are by same people. Probably was ABC news on ESPN.
I remember that (I think) ABC Family had normal programing, but ran a ticker across the normal programing, stating to turn to other channels for updates.
I would assume that Viacom, who owns Nick (And now owns CBS, if they didnt back then) considered, or did indeed run a text ticker as well.
In short, something that would inform Adults, but not kids. Along the lines of spelling words instead of speaking them.
I highly doubt Nick would break into Blue’s Clues with Flaming wreckage.
I remember reading that the reporters on the Naked News website kept their clothes on while delivering the news on 9-11.
Yes, I… (ahem) read about that also… 
Are you sure about that?
They did suspend regular programming in favor of news, but I think I recall seeing that interrupted for commercials at regular intervals. Possibly not quite as often as during normal programming, though. I imagine many advertisers pulled their ads for that day.
I’m not doubting you, but I remember long stretches of continuous coverage. They probably broke for commercials occasionally, but it was definitely much less frequently than normal.
Were you watching a broadcast network? It’s possible your local affiliate started running local spots before the network started providing breaks.
Also possible that your local cable operation’s equipment automatically inserted spots on cable channels.
I was slow finding out about the attacks because the only program I watched that morning was on Comedy Central, apparently one of the few cable channels without a co-owned news operation to patch into. (That so many channels did was a massive reminder of how most of the media is owned by a handful of companies). HGTV suspended programming and put up a slide. Apparently PBS turned the BBC World Service on their satellite system, since the local affiliate was running that (made for an interesting perspective to the day’s events.) The folks at The Weatherless Channel were just going through the motions (doubtless figuring no one was watching).
MSNBC ran a few hours of NBC’s coverage on the anniversary just past. Good luck with your search, Paul.
It doesn’t quite work like that. The money was probably made up later in the quarter by running makegoods. I doubt they lost billions, but I would be interested to see if they made their budget by the end of the year, what will all the makegoods they had to run.
I remember running down to master control to yank the airline commercials as well as the financials, and some auto rental place also wanted to be off the air.
<nitpick>
Viacom and CBS split up at the end of 2005.
</nitpick>
Comedy Central is part of the same conglomerate as Nick, MTV, VH1 etc. That is they are part of Viacom which as was stated before the same as CBS prior to 2005.
Other than Channel 2 WCBS which had a backup transmitter on the Empire State Building, did any other TV stations keep broadcasting over the air. I know they fed their programs directly to the cable TV companies, but did the TV stations go off immediately or did they go off only after which ever one of the two buildings that had the antenna on it fell.
I remember going through the cable networks to see what they were broadcasting on September 11. Virtually all cable networks did one of two things: either switched to a news component of its parent company, or placed a message onscreen saying that they had suspended programming because of the day’s events. Offhand, I can’t remember any cable network that continued broadcasting as if nothing had happened. (Caveat: I did not subscribe to premium cable networks like HMO or Showtime.)