CNN, Fox News and MSNBC were all in taped programming during the 1pmET hour when the news broke that Capt. Richard Phillips, held hostage by pirates for four days, had been rescued.
CNN was first to report the news during “Fareed Zakaria GPS” at 1:21pmET. MSNBC interrupted their documentary programming at 1:31pm and Fox News interrupted the Pastor Rick Warren Easter special to report the news at 1:34pm.
Lester Holt anchored a special report for NBC stations at 1:40pm and Bill Weir anchored a report for ABC stations at 1:44pm. Not surprisingly, CBS did not interrupt final round coverage of The Masters to report the news.
> More from an emailer: CBS did a crawl about 1:45-1:50 during its pre-Masters coverage.
> Programming notes:
• FNC preempted Huckabee (8pm) and Hannity (9pm) producing a live update at 8 then rebroadcasting the 7pm hour of The FOX Report. Geraldo Rivera picked up at 9 and continues to anchor (as of 10:40pm).
• Larry King anchored a live edition of his show at 9pmET on CNN.