ABC is planning mega coverage of Super Tuesday, blowing out primetime to offer wall-to-wall coverage of the Feb. 5 primaries. Alphabet's move reflects the high level of viewer interest in the wide open 2008 race for the White House, demonstrated by record ratings for CNN's coverage of the most recent Democratic debate. With the cable newsers drawing big Nielsen numbers for political coverage, ABC News is also pushing hard to underscore its commitment to full coverage of the campaign.
CBS and NBC have announced plans for an hour of coverage in primetime. However, industry insiders believe CBS is very close to expanding that to two hours. Peacock will also offer results via its MSNBC service.
ABC's decision to ditch entertainment programming for news is also partially attributable to the realities of the months-old Writers Guild of America strike. Net's current Tuesday lineup is filled mostly with repeats, making it a bit easier to cede so much real estate to the news division.
While ABC News hasn't officially announced its Super Tuesday plans, net's press website is touting the multihour event as "Super Tuesday Showdown: Coast to Coast." It's expected Charles Gibson will anchor the night, with contributions from the usual mix of pundits such as Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos.
ABC will offer affils live coverage starting at 8 p.m. on the East Coast and lasting through at least 1 a.m. EST. Local stations will cut in at least twice per hour, at around 25 and 55 minutes past the hour.
On the West Coast, primetime coverage will last until 10 p.m. PST, though ABC will stay live if events warrant. "Nightline" will be preempted on the East Coast but will air a live election special in the Pacific and Mountain time zones.
Super Tuesday won't be the first time this year ABC News has taken over primetime for election programming. Earlier this month, it broadcast back-to-back Democratic and Republican debates on a Saturday night.
Thank goodness! As I had projected, ABC is planning to turn over its entire Tuesday primetime schedule on February 5th to ABC News coverage of the "Super Tuesday" presidential primaries. With its regular Tuesday lineup doing so poorly, and many state results to cover impacting all time zones, this has the potential to do significantly better than its usual Tuesday fare.
I agree with dumont. I personally think ABC needs to pull Just for Laughs for summer or perhaps a Friday 8pm tryout into Duel at 9pm. Then ship Jim and a Jim encore to 8pm as a lead in for Primetime at 9 each week. Cancel the deadly low rated Carpoolers which shouldn't have ever been brought back. Throw it online with Cavemen and be done already with them. Neither one will return next year so stop pretending they have a chance.
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Originally posted by dumont: This is a good move, and will probably get ABC its highest viewership and demo numbers for Tuesday during the entire February Sweep.
Too bad there are not any other Super Tuesdays during February that ABC could turn over to the news division for coverage.
Originally posted by dumont: This is a good move, and will probably get ABC its highest viewership and demo numbers for Tuesday during the entire February Sweep.
Too bad there are not any other Super Tuesdays during February that ABC could turn over to the news division for coverage.
Well, there are no other "Super Tuesdays" per se, but depending on how the votes go, the following week's primaries may still be important enough, and if the ratings for this one are decent/good, expect to see this again on Feb 12.
