Several prominent TV networks quickly reworked their Sunday schedules in the wake of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, with broadcast networks standing up special morning coverage and cable-news outlets wholly reworking their normal weekend programming.
ABC and NBC broadcast special versions of “Good Morning America” and “Today,” while CBS pre-empted its usual offering — “CBS Sunday Morning” — in favor of a bespoke program anchored by John Dickerson. At NBC, Savannah Guthrie, who co-anchors weekday “Today,” joined Willie Geist, who typically leads a Sunday “Today” broadcast. ABC News, meanwhile, convened the three hosts of the weekday broadcast of “Good Morning America” — Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan — for an atypical weekend program.
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Cable-news networks also revamped their normal schedules. Fox News Channel had already planned a special Sunday schedule in advance of the start of this week’s Republican National Convention, but aired a bespoke evening program Saturday night led by opinion host Sean Hannity. The Fox Corp.-backed outlet had already planned a Sunday daytime schedule filled with many of the daytime anchors who lead weekday coverage. CNN on Sunday morning brought in Kasie Hunt, who typically anchors a weekday broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” for a program focused on the aftermath of the assassination attempt. MSNBC over many hours simulcast a rolling-coverage special report from NBC News, which included hours of coverage led by Hallie Jackson and Ana Cabrera.
Some major local stations mounted their own coverage, including New York’s WCBS and WABC.
The major broadcast networks pre-empted most of their Saturday-night programming to cover the alarming incident. Lester Holt anchored coverage for NBC News that was simulcast across MSNBC and the live-streaming service NBC News Now. ABC News featured hours of coverage led by Whit Johnson. CBS News offered Washington-based coverage led by Adriana Diaz, then by a roundtable of Margaret Brennan and Robert Costa joined by contributor Samantha Vinograd.
Such coverage can have business ramifications. Few if any of the networks on Saturday night appeared to take commercials, keeping sponsors away from the prospect of running ads with inappropriate tones next to solemn coverage of a violent act. TV networks lost more than $310 million in advertising during non-stop coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, according to an estimate from the ad-tracking firm then known as CMR/Taylor Nelson Sofres.
