Live television
Live television refers to
television broadcasts of events or performances as they are happening, or on a
delay of several seconds, rather than from
video recordings or
film.
In general live television was more common for broadcasting content produced specifically for television in the early years of the medium, before technologies such as
videotape recording appeared. As video recording became more prevalent, many entertainment programs were recorded and edited before broadcasting rather than being shown live. Entertainment events such as
professional sports games and
awards programs continue to be generally broadcast live.
Live television is most common in
television news, where news programs are generally broadcast live, presenting recorded and edited news stories. Events that
networks and
stations decide most viewers will want to or should know about as soon as possible are broadcast live, often interrupting regularly scheduled programming, as news bulletins, and if they are quickly changing and developing, with coverage as they unfold as "breaking news" stories.
Live television inherently has an extemporaneous, spontaneous, and urgent quality that often appears more suspenseful and exciting than recorded programming even if the content itself is not. It has this quality for many reasons: the fact that what is shown is happening in real-time, as it unfolds; the limited amount of control that is possible over live programming compared with recorded programming; and the resulting potential for mishap, that is, the idea that "anything can happen". Thus, it even extends itself to the live presentation of scripted material. Live television is therefore often used as a device, even when it is not necessary, in various types of programming to take advantage of these qualities, often to great success in terms of attracting viewers. The
NBC live comedy/variety program
Saturday Night Live, for example, has been on that network continuously since
1975. On
September 25,
1997, NBC broadcast a special
live episode of its hospital drama
ER, which at the time ranked as the third most-watched episode of any drama program ever. Many television news programs, particularly local ones in North America, have also used live television as a device to gain viewers by making their programs appear more exciting. With technologies such as satellite uplinks, a reporter can report live "on location" from anywhere where a story is happening in the city. This technique has attracted criticism for its overuse and resulting tendency to make stories appear more urgent than they actually are.
The unedited nature of live television can pose problems for networks because of the potential for mishaps. To enforce
broadcast standards and regulations, networks often broadcast live programs on a
delay of a few seconds to giving them the ability to
censor words and images while keeping the broadcast as "live" as possible.
Many incidents have happened on live television broadcasts that are well-remembered, sometimes because they were part of a major news story already, and always because they happened unexpectedly and before audiences of thousands or millions of viewers.
Entertainment
*
November 28,
1958 - Midway through transmission of the
Armchair Theatre play
Underground on the British
ITV network, actor
Gareth Jones dies off-camera, forcing the production to improvise for the remainder of the telecast.
*
December 1,
1976 - Appearing in a live interview on the
Thames Television pre-watershed programme
Today, the
Sex Pistols were interviewed by
Bill Grundy to promote their recently released
Anarchy in the UK single. After being called a "dirty old man" by Pistols
guitarist Steve Jones, Grundy goaded the band into swearing on live TV. Following Grundy's now infamous quote of "Well keep going, chief. Keep going. Go on, you've got another ten seconds. Say something outrageous", Jones responded with "you dirty bastard," "you dirty fucker," and "you fucking rotter". [
1]
*
February 20,
1981 - Appearing on the live
ABC comedy show
Fridays as guest host, comedian
Andy Kaufman refuses to read his lines during the last sketch, to the annoyance of the cast and crew. The situation escalates into a minor brawl, and the network cut the broadcast off. (It has been reported that the brawl was in fact prearranged by Kaufman in cooperation with
Fridays's producers and the network overreacted.)
*
October 17,
1989 - Right before Game 3 of The
1989 World Series between the
San Francisco Giants and the
Oakland Athletics, The
Loma Prieta earthquake occurred.
*
February 1,
2004 - During a performance by singers
Justin Timberlake and
Janet Jackson at the
Super Bowl XXXVIII half time show, Timberlake pulled off a part of Jackson's leather corset, revealing her right breast covered by a piece of jewelry attached to her nipple. He later described the incident as a "
wardrobe malfunction", intending to have left her bra on. The incident, reported to have been seen on live television by 89 million viewers, caused public outrage and demands for the
FCC to crack down on
indecency on television and radio. See
Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy.
News
*
November 24,
1963 -
Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of U. S. President
John F. Kennedy, is shot and killed in Dallas by nightclub owner
Jack Ruby while being transferred to a county jail.
*
November 13,
1965 - Critic and author
Kenneth Tynan, commenting on censorship during a live TV debate on the BBC, becomes the first person to say the word "f**k" on British television, leading to a national outcry and helping to establish
Mary Whitehouse as self-appointed guardian of television morality in the United Kingdom.
*
April 17,
1975 - TV Legend, the late
Graham Kennedy, commenting on censorship during a live TV debate on GTV Channel 9, becomes the first australian to say the word "f**k" on Australian television, banned from TV for his infamous crow call.
*
January 28,
1986 - The Space Shuttle
Challenger explodes in flight seconds into its launch, killing all seven astronauts on board.
*
January 22,
1987 - Pennsylvania State Treasurer
R. Budd Dwyer called a press conference after being convicted on corruption charges where he read a 20-page speech, handed manila envelopes to three of his aides, said "This will hurt someone", placed the barrel of a Magnum .357
revolver into his mouth and pulled the trigger. The suicide was carried live by several local television stations.
*
September 11,
2001 - At 9:03 AM EDT,
United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the
World Trade Center, to the shock of millions of viewers who were already watching live coverage of the unfolding
terrorist attacks of that day. Major networks had broken into regular programming just minutes earlier with live shots of the twin towers after
American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower at 8:46 EDT. Millions of shocked viewers watching live coverage of the attacks saw both buildings collapse.
*
September 21,
2005 -
JetBlue Airways Flight 292 makes an emergency landing in
Los Angeles. The passengers are able to watch the incident unfold on live television.
Although once a common technique, few television programs in the modern era have ever attempted such a feat. The most recent scripted series to do so on a regular basis was the
Charles S. Dutton series
Roc in the
1992-
93 season.
However, on occasion, scripted series will do an episode live to attract ratings. Notable examples of shows that have had a live episode include:
Gimme a Break! (
1985)
ER (
1997)
Coronation Street (for its 40th anniversary in
2000)
The Drew Carey Show (
2001)
The Bill (
2003 &
2005)
Blue Heelers (
2004)
Will and Grace (
2005 &
2006)
The West Wing (television) (
2005) - An episode was presented as a live Presidential debate between candidates
Arnold Vinick (
Alan Alda) and
Matthew Santos (
Jimmy Smits).
Both the
ER and
West Wing live episodes were performed twice in order to ensure most American time zones saw a live performance.
Neville, Ken (1997).
Minor Wounds, Killer Ratings for Live "ER". Retrieved Mar. 19, 2004 from http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,1833,00.html.
