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The ultimate in reality TV
« on: Mar 18th, 2003, 9:06am » |
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http://www.canoe.ca/Television/mar18_wartv-sun.html
The ultimate in reality TV
When the war starts it will be on our screens 24 hours a day
By BILL BRIOUX -- Toronto Sun
Throw away your TV listings. As soon as the bombs start raining down on Baghdad they'll start raining down on television.
U.S. President George W. Bush went on TV last night to deliver his "final" final ultimatum. When the U.S. invasion is launched, so-called "reality" shows like Survivor, American Idol and The Bachelor could be among the first casualties, with Sunday's Academy Awards ceremonies in Los Angeles also in the line of fire.
CBS and Global had planned to move Survivor to Wednesdays at 8 starting tomorrow night for the next few weeks due to CBS' NCAA "March Madness" campaign, but even the popular college basketball tourney is no longer a slam dunk.
As for Oscar, it's hard to get excited about who's on the red carpet when blood is flowing in the Middle East.
Nonetheless, executive producer Gil Cates insists the show will go on, even if it means security will be tighter than Russell Crowe at a post-Oscar bash. Diamond-studded stars such as Liz Taylor will be lighting up more metal detectors than Aaron Sorkin at a Burbank airport.
The good news: Look for yappy anti-war celebs like Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins to be seated as far from the podium as possible.
CBC News editor Tony Burman expects war to reach our living rooms as early as tomorrow evening. "There's an assumption that the Americans will try to hammer Iraq quite intensely at the beginning," he says, both to intimidate and also to head off the threat of bio-chemical retaliation.
Global News anchor Kevin Newman is also gearing up for an all-out assault. "At first word we'll be up," he says, "and when we'll be off is anybody's guess."
Newman's guess is that news coverage will swarm the Global schedule for the first 48 hours, at least. The Pentagon has been warning journalists to expect an explosive start. "After the first 24 hours, you look to go off when there is a lull," says Newman. "It doesn't sound as if there's going to be a lull this time."
Burman also expects war to take over the CBC and Newsworld schedules for at least 24-36 hours. "None of us knows how quickly the Americans will get to Baghdad," he says.
Most Canadian and American news organizations hightailed it out of Baghdad yesterday morning in a 12-hour convoy to
Amman, Jordan, as Saddam's youngest son took over the state-run information agency. Concerns that Iraq might use foreign correspondents as human shields and hostages were re-assessed. "Just 24 hours earlier, we had decided to stay in Baghdad," says Burman.
Besides their own bureaus, the Canadian networks will draw on BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Sky News and other international news sources throughout the war. Newman expects networks will continue to cooperate on coverage and resources as they did in the days following Sept. 11. "There could be only one cellphone that works," says Newman. Global correspondents have been instructed to keep an eye out for CBC and CTV journalists. "It's in everybody's interest to know that we haven't lost anybody in the field."
CTV News president Robert Hurst says his network will stick with war coverage continuously for at least the first 24 hours. "Beyond that will depend on events," says Hurst, "but we will be pre-empting all network programming" for the start of the war.
Hurst has had CTV war correspondents "in theatre" since December, with several journalists attending correspondent "boot camps." Hurst and Burman have been on the phone every few days to talk about shared safety issues as well as managing the costs of war coverage through cooperation. CBC is the only Canadian network in Northern Iraq and those reports won't be shared, says Burman.
Hurst says he plans to keep veteran newsanchor Lloyd Robertson out of the fray. He'll anchor from Toronto, fielding reports from correspondents in the war region. Ditto for CBC's Peter Mansbridge. "He's been visa-d for the entire region, but for now he'll remain in Toronto," says Burman.
CHUM Television news v-p Stephen Hurlbut says CP24 will go total war once the story breaks. CITY-TV will initially carry that feed, interrupting regular programming "for as long as we feel it is warranted," says Hurlbut. He recalls CITY sticking with the outbreak of the Gulf War for 14 straight hours in 1991.
As always, CITY's Gord Martineau will be the "go-to guy" for this big story, anchoring reports from international and internal feeds.
Even silly shows will be touched by this war. For laughs, check out junk like Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and Extra. Those jaw-dropping segues from Oscar-obsessed blather to Rambo-like celebrity war reports should test the ol' Vomit-O-Meter.
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