The King of Pop.
On Friday, spokespeople for Michael Jackson and The Staples Center announced the plans for Jackson's memorial service. Those who wanted to attend the event were told to log onto The Staples Center Web site and request a pair of tickets. 17,500 were given out in lottery format -- the luck of the draw. Of course, the Web site promptly crashed under the pressure of mourning Jackson fans' requests, which was estimated at more than 1.6 million.
But fear not, Jackson faithful -- television coverage of the event will be everywhere. ABC, CBS, NBC (which originally wasn't planning live coverage), CNN (and sister sites HLN and CNN International), MSNBC, and E! will all air the memorial service, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. tomorrow from Los Angeles' Staples Center. Most networks plan to begin coverage at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.
Katie Couric will be on-hand for CBS, as will Charles Gibson for ABC, and Meredith Vieira for NBC. Fox's mothership station will be noticeably absent, but its cable news stations will have some coverage.
Those who won't be home to watch the memorial from the comfort of their couches will be able to watch online right here at TV.com. We'll also be live-blogging the event starting at roughly 9:45 a.m. PT (details to come later).
Some networks are also temporarily relocating their home bases to Los Angeles. CBS' Early Show and Evening News will be calling Staples home today and tomorrow, and Couric will also host a special episode of 48 Hours tomorrow at 10 p.m. from L.A.
It's anyone's guess how the ratings for the event will pan out, but given the amount of interest from fans -- the Staples Center Web site was bombarded with more than 500 million hits during the first hour of memorial ticket registration on Friday, according to The Los Angeles Times -- it could be unprecedented.
More Michael Jackson at TV.com:
PHOTOS: A look at the life of Michael Jackson.
TOP TEN: Michael's best and worst moments on television.
Comments (5)
It sad that Michael died but boy I really am tired of hearing about it. I hope after his service is over We can go on with our lives without hearing about Michale Jackson everytime we turn around.
To OhioStateHack, get a life, the court said he was innocent and look what he did for underprivelaged kids, he helped them to forget about there problems to enjoy his Neverland Ranch
Why does it really have to be shown on all of these stations. I am pretty sure that everyone gets ABC, CBS, and NBC, so why does it have to show on all three?
I'm so sick of hearing about stupid Michael Jackson. Thank God Fox won't be showing it. The man was a pedofile and everyone knows it.
It is sad but can we stop all this crazy!