ABC preempted coverage of its preseason "Monday Night
Football" game last night "to show President Clinton's
address to the nation about his testimony" before the grand
jury yesterday, according to the AP. ABC moved coverage of
the Patriots-Cowboys game at 10:00pm EDT to ESPN2. ABC Dir
of Media Relations Mark Mandel said it was the first time a
"MNF" telecast has been moved to another network. Mandel:
"News events will always take precedence over any other
programming. We always bow to decisions of news executives
in these manners. Fortunately we had an outlet available in
ESPN2. This is the best of both worlds" (Mult., 8/18). In
Boston, Manly & Cafardo report that "MNF" returned to ABC at
approximately 10:28pm and that about one quarter "was
missed." In Boston, WCVB-ABC spokesperson Liz Cheng: "I
know this hurts us financially and annoys fans, but this was
the absolute right thing to do." NFL Dir of Int'l PR Peter
Abitante said that ABC "was hoping to make up for the loss
of advertising spots in prime time by adding more spots in
the first half." But he added that if ABC couldn't "get the
spots on, they'll likely make it up to advertisers during
the course of the year" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/18).
