"Live TV" redirects here. For the British TV station formerly known by this name, see L!VE TV.

Live television refers to television broadcast in real time. Today it is used mostly for programs such as Today, CBS This Morning, and local television news. However, from the early days of television until about 1958, it was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Videotape did not exist until 1957.

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 today 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. There is usually a 75-90 second delay between what is actually being filmed and what is being broadcast; this is to allow time for editing and censoring. However, some events can be delayed by up to 20 minutes such as Barack Obama's inauguration speech, and live coverage from the Big Brother house in the UK.

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 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 (like minor car accidents which often have no injuries) 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 the Federal Communications Commission 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.

Memorable events on live television

Many events 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.

News

• June 2, 1953 - the coronation of Her Majesty Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom was the first to be televised live on British television.
• November 24, 1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald (the alleged assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy) was shot in Dallas by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while being transferred to a county jail. Oswald was taken to Parkland Hospital, the same hospital in which President Kennedy and Governor Connally had been treated two days before, but died within approximately two hours after being shot.
• November 25, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy's funeral was broadcast on live TV . It was seen by perhaps what was the largest viewing audience up to then. It was the first live TV coverage of a Presidential funeral. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas three days before, on November 22, 1963. The assassination initiated four days of non-stop live television news coverage seen by millions.
• November 13, 1965 - Critic and author Kenneth Tynan became the first person to say the word "fuck" on British television while commenting on censorship during a live TV debate on the BBC. The incident helped to establish Mary Whitehouse as self-appointed guardian of television morality in the United Kingdom, and Tynan was fired.
• December 24, 1968 - Apollo 8 Genesis reading during the 9th orbit of the moon.
• July 20, 1969 - Apollo 11 the first moon landing by humans.
• July 15, 1974 - Christine Chubbuck, a television news reporter for station WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida, committed suicide on live television by firing a revolver shot into her head.
• January 28, 1986 - The Challenger explosion was seen on live TV by millions in the U.S.
• November 9, 1989 - Live coverage of the abolishment of travel restrictions and the opening of the border to West Berlin after mass panic and jubilation from East Germans.
• June 17, 1994 - The slow-speed chase of a vehicle containing American football star and murder suspect O. J. Simpson was broadcast live throughout the U.S., with NBC interrupting its coverage of the 1994 NBA Finals to do so.
• April 30, 1998 - Daniel V. Jones, a cancer and HIV-positive patient apparently frustrated with his HMO coverage, ended a live televised stand-off with police on a Los Angeles freeway by committing suicide, shooting himself in the chin with a shotgun. The event, which took place on a Thursday afternoon, was witnessed by many children whose after-school cartoons had been interrupted in order to broadcast the incident (which originally began as a high-speed pursuit), and led many to criticize Los Angeles television stations' practice of airing police pursuits live.
• September 11, 2001 - At 09:03am Eastern Daylight Time, 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 08:46am. Millions of viewers around the world watching live coverage of the attacks saw both buildings collapse.
• March 23, 2003 - Sky News broadcast live coverage of US forces attacking an Iraqi position. Sky reporter David Bowden, embedded with the US Marines, gave a live running commentary on the battle, something viewers had not seen before.
• July 7, 2005 - A live television report on the unfolding situation on the 7 July 2005 London bombings captured the sound of the Tavistock Square bus explosion at 09:46 British Summer Time.
• September 21, 2005 - JetBlue Airways Flight 292 made an emergency landing in Los Angeles. The passengers were able to watch the incident unfold on live television.
• August 16, 2008 - Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili chewed a tie during the news headlines on the BBC.
• April 30, 2009 - During live coverage of a parade on the Dutch holiday Koninginnedag in the city of Apeldoorn, Netherlands an attack took place on the Dutch Royal Family after Karst R. Tates drove a car into a crowd of people before crashing into a monument. Although the royal family themselves were unharmed the incident resulted in a total of 8 fatalities leaving many others injured.
• July 07, 2009 - Michael Jackson's funeral was broadcast live. It had around 200 million to 150 million viewers.

Entertainment

• November 30, 1958 - Midway through transmission of the Armchair Theatre play Underground on the British ITV network, actor Gareth Jones died off-camera, forcing the production to improvise for the remainder of the telecast.
• September 17, 1967 - While The Doors performed "Light My Fire" on The Ed Sullivan Show, frontman Jim Morrison used the word "higher" instead of the previously agreed-upon change "better".
• March 5, 1975 - Graham Kennedy mimicked a crow call ("faaaaaaark") remniscient of the word fuck during a hairspray ad on The Graham Kennedy Show on the Nine Network in Australia. He was banned from live TV indefinitely for the stunt. He quits the network on April 17 after the network took advantage of the pre-taping to delete a speech critical of Senator Doug McClelland (the then Minister for the Media).
• December 1, 1976 - Appearing in a live interview on the Thames Television pre-watershed programme Today as last-minute replacements for fellow EMI artists Queen, the Sex Pistols were interviewed by Bill Grundy to promote their recently released Anarchy in the UK single. During the interview, Jones said the band had "fucking spent" its label advance and Johnny Rotten used the word "shit." Pistols guitarist Steve Jones called Grundy a "dirty sod" and a "dirty old man", leading Grundy to goad the band into swearing on live TV, and Jones ended the interview with "you dirty bastard," "you dirty fucker," and "what a fucking rotter". Grundy was fired by ITV and Today was cancelled.
• February 20, 1981 - Appearing on the live ABC comedy show Fridays as guest host, comedian Andy Kaufman refused to read his lines during the last sketch, to the annoyance of the cast and crew. The situation escalated into a minor brawl, and the network cut off the broadcast. Kaufman later admitted that the fight was planned by him and some of the cast and crew.
• January 4, 1987 - A massive bench clearing brawl occurred in the WJHC between Canada and the Soviet Union. After Pavel Kostichkin took a two handed slash at Theoren Fleury, the Soviet Union's Evgeny Davydov came off the bench, eventually leading to both benches clearing. The officials walked off the ice and tried shutting off the arena lights, but the brawl lasted for 20 minutes until the IIHF declared the game null and void. Both teams were disqualified from the tournament and barred from attending the end-of-tournament dinner.
• 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". The incident caused outrage among religious groups and demands for the FCC to crack down on indecency on television and radio.
• April 21, 2004 - After commenting on a UEFA Champions League match on ITV1, Ron Atkinson thought that the broadcast had finished. However, although transmission in the UK had finished, he was still on air to various countries in the Middle East and proceeded to say that "...he is what is known in some schools as a fucking lazy thick nigger" towards Marcel Desailly. He resigned with immediate effect.
• April 14, 2007 - At the conclusion of an AFL match between Fremantle and West Coast on Network Ten, Eagles player Michael Braun (in front of a TV audience of 550,000 and a crowd of 42,051) concludes his Ross Glenndenning Medal acceptance speech with "Let's have a fucking good year". Braun was fined $5,500 by the AFL for the stunt.

Live television 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. In the U.S., soap operas including As the World Turns and The Edge of Night were broadcast live until 1975. 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. In the U.S. and Canada, the episode is occasionally performed twice: once for the east coast (Eastern and Central time zones) and again three hours later for the west coast (Mountain and Pacific time zones). Notable examples of shows that have had a live episode include:

• Gimme a Break! (1985)
• Roc (The entire second season, 1993)
• ER (1997)
• Coronation Street (for its 40th anniversary in 2000)
• The Drew Carey Show (1999, 2000, & 2001)
• The Bill (2003 & 2005)
• The Daily Show (2004, 2008, 2009)
• Blue Heelers (2004)
• Will & Grace (2005 & 2006)
• Air Farce Live (All episodes from October 2007 - December 2008)
• The West Wing (2005) - An episode ("The Debate") was presented as a live debate between presidential candidates
• EastEnders (For its 25 anniversery in 2010)

In recent years there have been a number of special films broadcast live as well. These include the remakes of Fail Safe (2000) and The Quatermass Experiment (2005).

A live television advertisement was shown for the first time in 40 years to celebrate the arrival of the new Honda Accord in the United Kingdom. It was broadcast on Channel Four on 29 May 2008 at 20:10 during a special episode of 'Come Dine With Me'.

Live television specials

Many live television specials were telecast during the pre-videotape era. Among the most successful were the 1955 and 1956 telecasts of Peter Pan, a 1954 musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie's 1904 play, starring Mary Martin, and Cyril Ritchard. This was such a hit that the show was restaged and rebroadcast (this time on videotape) with the same two stars and most of the rest of the cast in 1960, and rerun several times after that. The Peter Pan telecasts marked the first-ever telecasts of a complete Broadway musical with most of its original cast.

Further reading

• No Retakes, by Sandra Grabman and Wright King. BearManor Media, 2008.
• Caesar's Hours: My Life in Comedy, with Love and Laughter, by Sid Caesar with Eddy Friedfeld. Public Affairs, 2003.
• The Box: An Oral History of Television 1920-1961, by Jeff Kisseloff. Penguin Books, 1995.
• The Live Television Generation of Hollywood Film Directors, by Gorham Kindem. McFarland, 1994.
• Live Television: The Golden Age of 1946-1958 in New York, by Frank Sturcken. McFarland, 1990.
• Golden Age of Television: Notes from the Survivors, by Max Wilk. Moyer Bell Limited, 1989.
• Where Have I Been? An Autobiography, by Sid Caesar with Bill Davidson, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1982.

References