9/11 Television Programs

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Networks Line Up 9-11 Programs
Wed Aug 21, 6:00 PM ET
By Josh Grossberg

Television's September 11 lineup is shaping up, as broadcast and cable networks plan diverse programming to mark the first anniversary of the deadly terror attacks.

With most of its rivals focusing on news and retrospectives, NBC is running The Concert for America, featuring performances by Aretha Franklin, Enrique Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, Al Green, Placido Domingo, the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin and Alan Jackson, no doubt performing his September 11-inspired hit, "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)."

The two-hour tribute will be hosted by NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw. Laura Bush will be on hand as honorary chairman for the event, which will air live from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

Preceding that tribute by a day will be the Dateline NBC special America Remembers.

NBC, ABC and CBS will all run expanded editions of their morning news programs, with live shots from Ground Zero and full accounts of the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon ( news - web sites).

CBS is planning to air a special 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II, with the latter featuring the only interview granted by President Bush ( news - web sites) on that fateful day. The network will also rerun its acclaimed 9-11 documentary, hosted by New Yorker Robert De Niro, which first aired in March.

ABC plans to broadcast news throughout the day and into prime time, along with a question-and-answer session for children hosted by World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings, as well as a special edition of Nightline. Fox will present its own two-hour special, The Day America Changed.

UPN, meanwhile, is offering Portraits of Courage, a two-hour special profiling five young people who became heroes trying to save others.

CNN, MSNBC and Fox News Channel will all do news and documentary programs; non-news cable outlets are trying not to appear crass, with some even shutting down.

The Associated Press reports that A&E Television Networks, including A&E, the Biography Channel, the History Channel and History International, will fade to black on the 11th. Instead of their normal programming, A&E's channels will continuously scroll the names of the victims, beginning at 8:46 a.m., the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center. The scroll will last an hour and 43 minutes, until 10:29 a.m., when the second tower collapsed.

E! is planning a one-hour news special to mark the occasion.

Other channels, including the Food Network, HGTV, DIY Network and Fine Living, will suspend their lifestyle shows in favor of "a series of images, words and music intended to inspire quiet reflection."

Familiar names and faces from the tragedy will also resurface.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ( news - web sites) is, according to his spokeswoman, still deciding which of hundreds of interview requests he plans to accept. He also plans to attend tributes to the friends and coworkers he lost that day.

And Lisa Beamer--whose husband, Todd Beamer, uttered the now famous "Let's roll" on United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania--has granted taped interviews to NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America and will appear live on Larry King.