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.

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 delay of a few seconds to giving them the ability to censor words and images while keeping the broadcast as "live" as possible.

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.

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". ^*
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.
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 calls a press conference after being convicted on corruption charges. At the conference he begins to read a 20-page speech (which he never finishs), hands manila envelopes to three of his aides, places the barrel of a Magnum .357 revolver into his mouth and pulls 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.

Television programs with live episodes

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:

ER (1997)
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).

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.

Television news | Television programming