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ABC News needed Jennings for London bombing coverage
Thursday’s London bombing coverage on ABC suffered miserably from the absence of Peter Jennings.
The calm, cool anchor has been off the air battling lung cancer for months.
When news breaks, especially tragic news such as this, Jennings is unflappable. But Diane Sawyer was brought in to anchor the network’s prime-time coverage last night, and she was clearly unprepared and more than a little rattled.
After getting one of the subway survivors on the air, Sawyer couldn’t come up with a single question that made any sense.
“So, you must have been terrified,” she said, furrowing her brow and shaking her platinum locks. The poor guy muttered something, and Sawyer repeated the same lame phrase, which was definitely not a question.
Quick on his feet and smart as a whip, Jennings never fails to come up with cogent comments and enlightening questions. His anchoring post-9/11 was arguably the best on network television. Not without occasional bouts of emotion but mostly controlled and informative.
Maybe Sawyer was a last-minute choice, but if ABC’s bench is that shallow — what about Charlie Gibson, Ted Koppel or Elizabeth Vargas? — there’s a problem.
Speaking of ABC, the network had to quickly scrap its prime-time lineup last night because the movie “Reign of Fire” was on the schedule. The film depicts a future London attacked by dragons and includes scenes of explosions in the Underground. The comedy “Big Fat Liar” aired instead.
Viewers swarm to dancing and awards
Kelly Monaco, the “General Hospital” star who shimmied her way to victory on “Dancing with the Stars” on Wednesday night, drew a huge audience to ABC.
The show’s finale attracted 22.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched program this summer and the most-watched summer show in three years.
And in other rating news, BET, the cable channel that seems always struggling to survive, had the most-watched show on cable last week, “The BET Awards”, hosted by Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.
The awards program, honoring African American performers in music, movies, TV and sports, drew 6.58 million viewers. The show’s ratings boosted BET from its customary low place in the cable Nielsens to a Top 5 finish among all basic cable networks in prime time.
As usual, TNT was first, followed by USA, Disney and Fox News. At least wrestling was bumped from the top slot for a week!
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