The Coverage

Here's how the networks and cable will cover the Michael Jackson service, via TVNewser:

• ABC: Charlie Gibson will anchor live coverage "Remembering Michael Jackson" at 1pmET, joined by "Nightline" anchor Martin Bashir. Some updates: Diane Sawyer, in NY, and Barbara Walters, at the Staples Center, will co-anchor a special edition of "20/20" at 9pmET. Sawyer and Elizabeth Vargas will also co-anchor "Primetime: Family Secrets," a report on Michael Jackson's children at 10pmET. Cynthia McFadden will also anchor "Nightline" from the Staples Center.
• CBS: Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith will anchor the "Early Show" from the Staples Center tomorrow. Katie Couric will anchor special coverage of the memorial at 1pmET and the CBS "Evening News" from the Staples Center. Couric will also do "48 Hours" at 10pmET.
• NBC/MSNBC: NBC will televise the memorial service at 1pmET, anchored by Brian Williams. Chris Jansing will anchor MSNBC's live coverage. Meredith Vieira will broadcast live tomorrow at the Staples Center for "Today" and Williams will anchor "Nightly News" from LA Tuesday.
• CNN: Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Don Lemon and Soledad O'Brien will host coverage live from LA, with Campbell Brown and Roland Martin anchoring live from New York, starting at NoonET on CNN and simulcast on CNN International.
• HLN: Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor live coverage for HLN.
• Fox: Shepard Smith will anchor live coverage of the memorial service on Fox News starting at 1pmET. Megyn Kelly will anchor live coverage of the memorial on FOX broadcast also beginning at 1pmET. Greta Van Susteren will also be in LA on Tuesday, and will host her show from there Tuesday night.

No word if the Home Shopping Network, the Disney Channel, QVC or Nickelodeon will be breaking from their regular broadcast schedules yet...

Basically it'll be the opposite of the Billy Mays coverage...

Kimmel Self Destructs

If Jimmy Kimmel still has a job at ABC on Wednesday, he is either a very lucky or very deft comedian, or he has great blackmail photos of the network executives.
At Tuesday afternoon’s upfront presentation in New York, Mr. Kimmel, the host of ABC’s late night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” delivered a withering, blistering monologue that took direct aim at ABC, its potential advertisers and his NBC late-night rival, Jay Leno. The assembled advertisers received his performance with a mixture of uneasy laughs and the occasional gasp.
New York Times report HERE

This Fall on ABC

“COUGAR TOWN”
Courteney Cox stars as a recently divorced single mother exploring the honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture.
ABC fall schedule HERE
pics HERE

ABC Puts The Ug In Ugly

Things aren’t looking so pretty for Ugly Betty
The ABC dramedy is being put on hiatus starting March 26, 2009 and being replacing it with episodes of Samantha Who? and the new Megan Mullally-Cheryl Hines comedy In the Motherhood.
The network says “Ugly Betty will return to Thursday nights at 8:00 p.m. following the run of In the Motherhood and Samantha Who?”
An ABC spokesperson adds, “The Thursday night block is a good opportunity to launch these comedies. That said, Betty is a solid performer and there is no question that it will definitely be back to complete its season, just without repeats.”
more HERE

Homeland Security : Unreal

The Department of Homeland Security may bring to mind bright interrogation lights rather than the lights of Hollywood. But Tuesday night, ABC debuts a new reality show that takes viewers behind the scenes as border guards, Secret Service agents and patrol officers protect the nation.
The show, called Homeland Security USA has the look of a documentary, but its producers stay clear of politics and deliver a fast-paced show that's more COPS than Frontline.
NPR report & podcast HERE

...join the customs team, border patrol or TSA and you too can be a television celebrity...