Live television

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Live television refers to television broadcasts of events or performances on a delay of between zero and fifteen 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.

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[edit] Uses of live television

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 slight delay to give them the ability to censor words and images while keeping the broadcast as "live" as possible.

[edit] Famous incidents on live television

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.

[edit] Entertainment

[edit] News

  • November 24, 1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was 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, became the first person to say the word the f word on British television. This leads to a national outcry, Tynan was sacked and the incident helped to establish Mary Whitehouse as self-appointed guardian of television morality in the United Kingdom.
  • January 28, 1986 - The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in flight seconds into its launch, killing all seven astronauts on board.
  • January 22, 1987 - Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer called a live 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, killing himself instantly.
  • September 11, 2001 - At 9:03 AM EDT, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center, in front 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. Billions of viewers around the world watching live coverage of the attacks saw both buildings collapse.
  • September 21, 2005 - JetBlue Airways Flight 292 made an emergency landing in Los Angeles. The passengers are able to watch the incident unfold on live television.

[edit] Television programs with live episodes

Although all programs were once live, the use of videotape means that very 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:

Note: Both the ER and West Wing live episodes were performed twice in order to ensure most American time zones saw a live performance.

[edit] Sources

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.

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