History Main / WeInterruptThisProgram

* Recently used in ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' in skits where their version of the founder of Wikileaks statics out someone else's broadcast to [[DoNotAdjustYourSet send his message]].

* In ''WebVideo/EnderPixel'', in the bus during ''LOL 5'' part 2, a random cat interrupts the entire episode by jumping in randomly.

See also ThisJustIn, where it's a news program that interrupts itself for this purpose. See EmergencyBroadcast for a common way this happens in RealLife.

* [[WeInterruptThisProgram.RealLife Real Life]]

* [[RealLife.WeInterruptThisProgram Real Life]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Extant clips circulate of a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYDg4FqlBEc pro football game]] and a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSqwZdtrZW8 New York Philharmonic concert]], respectively, getting interrupted by news reports about the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
* Creator/{{CBS}} famously interrupted ''Series/AsTheWorldTurns'' in the Eastern and Central time zones to report on the shooting and eventual death of President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy on November 22, 1963. (A repeat of the sitcom ''The Real [=McCoys=]'' was interrupted in the west.)
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfUdJleG5Yc WGBH's live broadcast of a Boston Symphony concert]] was unique in that the conductor, Erich Leinsdorf, broke the news of the assassination himself, instead of WGBH's reporters. After making the announcement to a shocked audience, he and the orchestra played Beethoven's Funeral March.
* In series 38, episode 7 of ''Series/HaveIGotNewsForYou'', a crew member walked up to Ian Hislop and whispered in his ear. Ian then announced that [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8083585.stm cabinet minister James Purnell had just resigned,]] just as the panel were discussing the various cabinet resignations that had occurred during that week.
** News that Ed Miliband was resigning as Leader of the Labour Party similarly interrupted another episode. A week later, discussion of Chuka Umunna, who was one of the candidates to be Miliband's replacement, was interrupted by the news that Umunna was dropping out of the race.
* The live broadcast of ''[[Franchise/{{Quatermass}} Quatermass 2005]]'' had an on-screen graphic displayed twice, advising viewers that a major news story (the death of Pope John Paul II) was being covered on BBC News 24.
* This also happens whenever Royals die in the UK; Normal programming is either interrupted by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-fSTgFXblE the picture of the Union Jack and sombre music]], or a message telling viewers to change to a news channel. Such events are also likely to disrupt regular programming for the rest of the day. Although it wasn't expected, a good example of both this trope and ThisJustIn is how British Channels responded to [[http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/continuity/diana.html the death of Princess Diana]].
** Which is very annoying because after the first hour they had absolutely no new news whatsoever, and because EVERY SINGLE OTHER CHANNEL was telling you to turn to the news channels, you couldn't escape.
* Obviously happened on September 11, 2001. You can find plenty of footage on Website/YouTube; it's especially eerie to see how "normally" the day started. Some regular programs took days to come back on the air.
* "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E24TurnaboutIntruder Turnabout Intruder]]", the last episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', was pre-empted by the death of UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower. It didn't air until two months later.
* During a live broadcast of ABC's ''Series/MondayNightFootball'' in 1980, Music/JohnLennon's assassination was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n73GFvAyIjs announced on-air]] by commentator Howard Cosell. (This was dramatized in the 2016 film ''Film/TheLennonReport'' showing how Cosell got the news and decided it had to be announced live during the game.)
* Meanwhile over at NBC, ''Series/TheTonightShow'' had [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUtLemMI-WM a possibly NightmareFuel interruption]] for John's death. How'd you like to be half-asleep listening to Johnny (obviously on tape) saying mildly witty stuff and get hit with this guy intoning "FORMER BEATLE JOHN LENNON IS DEAD." And then [[MoodWhiplash right back to the jokes]].
** Similarly, an ESPN ''Sunday Night Baseball'' telecast in 2011 was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCVMD-TMqkk interrupted]] for an announcement of the death of UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden.
** In the early morning hours of June 4, 1989, anyone who was up watching a Turner channel -- say, Nick at Nite or TNT (which was showing ''Film/HowIWonTheWar'') -- was greeted with a special bulletin: "THE AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI IS DEAD." However, [[Main/KeepCirculatingTheTapes no footage of this interruption is known to exist]].
* It isn't to say that a children's movie is [[SeriousBusiness important]], but outrage ensued from angry parents on social media when NBC interrupted their airing of an ''[[Literature/AmericanGirlsCollection American Girl]]'' film in favor of a news report on the Trayvon Martin case. No footage of this interruption (and the below interruption as well) are known to exist like the Turner Ayatollah interruption.
** [[http://www.allyngibson.com/?p=6292 Something similar happened]] during an airing of ''WesternAnimation/BeMyValentineCharlieBrown'', but reporting on the death of Music/WhitneyHouston.
* Cable news channels have become infamous for overusing and inverting this trope - MSNBC uses a "Breaking News" graphic for the top-stories update at :38 after the hour in prime time, Fox News once broke in on a live-on-camera interview with a U.S. Senator to show Music/JustinBieber being perp-walked after a routine court hearing.
** On this or a similar occasion, Shepard Smith called out on air the ridiculousness of [[WorstNewsJudgmentEver devoting the breaking news graphic for celebrity news]].
* In Russia, both today and during the Soviet-era, classical music being played on all official channels has become recognizable as shorthand for "[[OhCrap something terrible has happened]]." When Chernobyl happened, all radio played classical music for two days until the official announcement was prepared.
** This tends to be standard practice for totalitarian regimes. When it came time for the Nazis to announce the catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad, they replaced all regular programming with Anton Bruckner's Seventh Symphony before announcing the Sixth Army's fate.
* The second-to-last episode of the Japanese series ''[[Series/ResshaSentaiTokkyuger Ressha Sentai ToQger]]'' was interrupted by a newscast about the death of a Japanese journalist at the hands of the terrorist group ISIS. It was long enough to push the final two episodes (and thus, the premiere of ''Series/ShurikenSentaiNinninger'') back, but short enough that ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' and the premiere of ''Anime/GoPrincessPrettyCure'' aired uninterrupted.
* Creator/RoosterTeeth did this twice, using the news recap show "The Know-It-All" to reveal Creator/MontyOum's hospitalization (and that there would be no videos from Rooster Teeth that weekend), then using "The Know" a few days later to reveal of his passing, again stating that there would be no videos because of it.
* During the series's original run, the final episode of ''Series/MyMotherTheCar'' was interrupted by a special news bulletin involving NASA. The episode did not resume afterwards, and it wouldn't be until later that the entire episode was seen.
* Nickelodeon interrupted a re-run of the ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' episode "Pups Save A Baby Humdinger/Pups Save A Pinata" on March 14, 2018 to go off-air in support of the National Walk-Out that day. [[https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/nation-now/2018/03/14/nickelodeon-went-off-air-17-minutes-national-walkout/424430002/ Parents were not too pleased]], which lead to a controversy on Twitter, during which one user had this to say:
-->'''Twitter user''': Your kids can miss 17 minutes of PAW Patrol for the 17 families who lost their kids.
* With the exception listed above, Japanese networks often use banners called "telops" showing the name of the station's news department, followed by text indicating a piece of breaking news [[note]]This is most commonly about a natural disaster like an earthquake or typhoon, but sometimes, other pieces of news will be shown as well[[/note]] rather than interrupting the program most of the time. This is common on anime and children's programming, but some other programs use it too. The most infamous use of a news banner happened in 2016, when [[https://youtu.be/d72Oo5-BU8A?t=134 a news ticker about the Kazuhiro Kiyohara trial was shown]] during an episode of ''VideoGame/{{Aikatsu}}'', which was not only notable for not only upsetting the child viewers due to the subject matter, [[http://jin115.com/archives/52123496.html but the adult fanbase]] and [[https://twitter.com/Ryuichi_Kimura/status/710406129625346049 even the director of the show itself]].
** Creator/TVTokyo is known for their extensive use of telops, as they rarely, if ever, interrupt programming for breaking news. Many times, the telops themselves coincidentally relate to whatever is currently being run at the time (for instance, a travel program on Niigata running during the 2004 earthquake in the region). This is known as [[https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E6%9D%B1%E4%BC%9D%E8%AA%AC The Legend of TV Tokyo]].
*** On some occasions, they'll actually avert this trope with the telops themselves. On the day the penultimate episode of the second season of ''Anime/KirattoPriChan'' aired, [[https://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/20200322010440495-22100018.html a minor earthquake occurred]], which they would normally show a banner for. However, unlike the other networks (like Creator/FujiTV, which was airing ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}''), they showed a banner promoting a ''[=PriChan=]'' contest rather than the earthquake one.
* The first airing of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' on Creator/{{CBS}}'s Nickelodeon-themed SaturdayMorningCartoon block (the episode in question was "Finsterella") was interrupted on some stations halfway through for breaking news about the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion. Some stations did air the episode as originally planned. And like with the Turner Ayatollah interruption, no footage of this interruption is known to exist.
* [[http://home-aki.la.coocan.jp/kirby-houdou.htm According to this page]], the last few minutes of the original Japanese airing of the ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'' episode "Hunger Struck" were interrupted by a news report about a strong earthquake hitting Miyagi Prefecture a few seconds before the episode ended. Due to this incident and the complaints it caused, a rerun of the episode was scheduled a week later.
* The premiere of the episode "Ganmo's Perfect Rakugo Theater" of the 1988 incarnation of ''Manga/HimitsuNoAkkoChan'' was pre-empted by ongoing news coverage of Emperor Hirohito's death (which all channels in the country ran non-stop coverage of for at least a week).
** The original series had episode 29, "The Lizard Woman Has Come!", pre-empted by news coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It would air a week later as a result.
* One rerun of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Horseland}}'' episode "The Can-Do Kid" was interrupted by a CBS News discussion on the death of Osama Bin Laden.
* Towards the end of a broadcast of ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' on ABC Kids, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQgpV-jUK0I an ABC News Special Report on Hurricane Charley]] interrupted the end of show. This is to the point George Stephanopoulos ''actually tells the children watching to get their parents to come into the room because of the subject matter of the report'' (it probably didn't work, as most kids probably changed the channel in anger). After the Special Report ended, the network joined ''Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder'' already in progress.
** The final broadcast day of ABC Kids was not seen on the East Coast of the United States due to news coverage of Hurricane Irene pre-empting the entire block that day.
* On April 1, 1980, an airing of ''Daffy Duck's Easter Special'' on NBC [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmxW76rhuUw was interrupted by a NBC News Special Report regarding the election]]. According to the comments section, some kids weren't pleased.
* One airing of a Premier League match on NBC was interrupted for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve7u994u6f8 another NBC News Special Report]].
* During the Columbine shootings, a ''Series/GeneralHospital'' episode was interrupted for a ABC News Special Report. The video used on be on [=YouTube=] but was deleted.
* Another example of ABC Daytime getting interrupted - an ''Series/AllMyChildren'' airing [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ObkvXVR2lU was interrupted for news on Bill Clinton's surgery]].
* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' didn't have such a lucky premiere of its 44th season as the show's themed "Decades Week" faced an interruption on most days caused by the visit of Pope Francis in the United States. On September 23 [[https://youtu.be/ygjeqvs9deo?t=1225 the show was interrupted during the fifth Item Up For Bids]] for a Special Report and returned during the sixth pricing game. On September 24, the show was interrupted at the first Showcase Showdown for a special report on the Pope's speech, that episode never returning to air on the East Coast. The last day of Decades Week was the least lucky, with the entire latter half of the show being interrupted on the East Coast for a third Special Report on the Pope (preempting the premiere of the game Vend-O-Price), once again with the show not returning to air, and then subsequently being interrupted on the West Coast by a Special Report on the resignation of Speaker of the House John Boehner.
* On April 15, 2019, the last few minutes of a repeat of ''Series/TheView'' were interrupted for an ABC News Special Report on the Notre Dame cathedral fire.
* This happened twice during the annual airings of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' in the United States:
** The Feburary 24, 1974 airing on NBC got interrupted by a special report on the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, delaying the movie by a half-hour.
** The February 24, 1988 airing on CBS was interrupted for a Special Report on a presidental conference, delaying the start time by an hour and a half.
* On November 15, 2019 and November 19th, 2019, an hour of Creator/PBSKids programming on PBS stations nationwide was pre-empted for coverage of an impeachment trial. This was not the first time it had happened: in the mid-90's, coverage of congressional hearings interrupted most of the block, causing some affiliates to air it at the end of the day.
** The second part of the same impeachment trial, occuring from January 21-23rd, 2020, interrupted 5 hours' worth of PBS programming, including several Creator/PBSKids shows, with ''WesternAnimation/CuriousGeorge'', ''Series/OddSquad'', ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'', ''WesternAnimation/NatureCat'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Cyberchase}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'' not airing that day on many PBS stations. Some affilates, including one in Connecticut, decided to air these programs from 5 to 9PM (with a break for ''The PBS [=NewsHour=]'' in between the first hour and the last three hours) following the trial.
* December 18th, 2019's airing of Survivor on CBS was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo3tPT9NJyQ interrupted to announce that President Trump had been impeached.]] Norah O'Donnell began the announcement by telling Survivor viewers that they would not miss a minute of it.
** Meanwhile, ABC interrupted the beginning of the ''Series/GoodTimes'' half of the second edition of ''Live In Front Of A Studio Audience'' to announce the news. Creator/JimmyKimmel even lampshaded the possibility of this happening in the speech he gave at the beginning of the broadcast.
* This often happens during major snowstorms, at least on the East Coast of the United States. Usually, networks will interrupt their programming for the local news half of the network to cover the progress of the storm and its' aftermath. For instance, when an unexpected snowstorm hit during rush hour in New York City in November 2018, WABC spent most of the afternoon and evening airing news coverage of the traffic jams the storm caused, pre-empting all programming up until 7:30PM except for ''ABC World News Tonight'', meaning that ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' did not air that evening.
* On January 3, 2020, a NBC Special Report about the death of Qasem Soleimani came on seven minutes into a repeat of the November 7, 2019 edition of ''[[Creator/EllenDeGeneres The Ellen [=DeGeneres=] Show]]'', which featured Creator/SteveCarell as a guest, on New York City affiliate WNBC. ABC also interrupted their programs for the same report during a new episode of ''Series/GeneralHospital'', as well as CBS (in New York, a repeat of the September 18, 2019 episode of ''Series/DrPhil'' was on).
* A presidental address by Barack Obama pre-empted ABC's original December 1, 2009 airdate for ''WesternAnimation/PrepAndLanding''. As a result, the special was rescheduled to air a week later in the slot that the annual 1-hour presentation of ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas'' held, which resulted in the latter event being cancelled for the year.
* Surprisingly averted for ABC's airing of the January 21, 2020 Senate Impeachment Trial. The show that aired in the slot the trial began, ''Strahan, Sara and Keke'', did not advertise that the show would be airing that day via social media unlike what they did the day prior. However, this trope was played straight with NBC, as several affiliates had to reschedule ''Series/DaysOfOurLives'' to the graveyard slot due to the coverage.
* Concert example: the ''[[Anime/LoveLiveSunshine Aqours World Love Live: Brand New Wave]]'' concert was interrupted after "Brightest Melody" to inform the audience of the 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake and how the show was taking a break to check for damage from it.
* A repeat of the November 17, 2019 episode of ''[[Series/DragonsDen Shark Tank]]'' on January 26, 2020 was interrupted by a ABC News Special Report on Kobe Bryant's death.
* This has happened to ''Creator/OneSaturdayMorning'' at least twice:
** The block's premiere was originally intended for on September 6, 1997, but it got pre-empted for coverage of Princess Diana's funeral across all broadcast TV channels, which in turn also pre-empted the premieres of ''Series/TheWeirdAlShow'' and ''[[Series/WheelOfFortune Wheel 2000]]'' on the then-new ''Think CBS Kids'' block and ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfCalamityJane'' on ''Creator/KidsWB''.
** The December 19, 1998 airing, which notably contained the ChristmasEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', was pre-empted by an impeachment trial.
* On March 16, 2020, all of the Big 4 broadcast TV stations in the United States (CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX) suspended their shows from 10:00AM EST until 12:30PM EST for news coverage of the coronavirus. Most notably, this was the report that said that all businesses would be closed due to the outbreak. Another interruption occured later in the day around 3:30PM EST. This would continue every day since then.
* When North Korea launched a missle over Hokkaido, the morning news program of Creator/TVTokyo, ''News Morning Satelite'', was given an additional half-hour of airtime to cover this topic. This lead to the first pre-emption of ''Oha Suta'', the children's news program that followed, in it's 20-year-run to not be related to sports coverage. As a result of this incident, the rerun of ''Anime/KemonoFriends'' that came on afterwards ran with no advertising.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qWtnFdPbdo On New Years Day 1986]], NBC interrupted the Rose Parade's broadcast to air Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev's New Years Day message to the American public, which was apart of a exchanging of televised Christmas greetings between the United States and Soviet Union.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8yoVldXgJQ&t=130s One airing]] of the ''WesternAnimation/AlfredJKwak'' episode "The Snowman" had the text "For a major announcement please turn to BBC News" on the bottom of the screen during one point in the episode. The major announcement was that Princess Diana had died.
* A December 1993 broadcast of the ''[[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 [=DuckTales=]]]'' episode "A Whale of a Bad Time" in Hungary was cut to announce the death of the then-serving prime minister. The event confused children across the country and became a defining generational moment for that country -- they were eventually dubbed the "[=DuckTales=] Generation" and became the focus of numerous articles and cultural analyses.
* This happened for weeks on ABC Kids during the 2008 election, usually during ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheReplacements''. These shows would usually be interrupted at random points for Special Reports on the election.
[[/folder]]

*** On some occasions, they'll actually avert this trope with the telops themselves. On the day the penultimate episode of the second season of ''Anime/KirattoPriChan'' aired, [[https://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/20200322010440495-22100018.html a minor earthquake occurred]], which they would normally show a banner for. However, unlike the other networks (like Fuji TV, which was airing ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'') , they showed a banner promoting a ''[=PriChan=]'' contest rather than the earthquake banner.

* On March 16, 2020, all of the Big 4 broadcast TV stations in the United States (CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX) suspended their shows from 10:00AM EST until 12:30PM EST for news coverage of the coronavirus. Most notably, this was the report that said that all businesses would be closed due to the outbreak. Another interruption occured later in the day around 3:30PM EST.
** The next day, at 11:45AM EST, coronavirus special reports broke again, interrupting an episode of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' on CBS and an episode of ''Series/TheView'' discussing coronavirus on ABC.

* A December 1993 broadcast of the ''[[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 [=DuckTales=]]]'' "A Whale of a Bad Time"in Hungary was cut to announce the death of the then-serving prime minister. The event confused children across the country and became a defining generational moment -- they were eventually dubbed the "[=DuckTales=] Generation" and became the focus of numerous articles and cultural analyses.

* During the Columbine shootings, a ''Series/GeneralHospital'' episode was interrupted [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejBrRrTJbS4 for a ABC News Special Report]].

* With the exception listed above, Japanese networks often use banners called "telops" on children's programming showing the name of the station's news department, followed by text indicating a piece of breaking news [[note]]This is most commonly about a natural disaster like an earthquake or typhoon, but sometimes, other pieces of news will be shown as well[[/note]] rather than interrupting the program most of the time. The most infamous use of a news banner happened in 2016, when [[https://youtu.be/d72Oo5-BU8A?t=134 a news ticker about the Kazuhiro Kiyohara trial was shown]] during an episode of ''VideoGame/{{Aikatsu}}'', which was not only notable for not only upsetting the child viewers due to the subject matter, [[http://jin115.com/archives/52123496.html but the adult fanbase]] and [[https://twitter.com/Ryuichi_Kimura/status/710406129625346049 even the director of the show itself]].
** Creator/TVTokyo is known for their extensive use of this, as they rarely, if ever, interrupt programming for breaking news. Many times, the telops themselves coincidentally relate to whatever is currently being run at the time (for instance, a travel program on Niigata running during the 2004 earthquake in the region). This is known as [[https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E6%9D%B1%E4%BC%9D%E8%AA%AC The Legend of TV Tokyo]].

** Creator/TVTokyo is known for their news telops during their programming since they usually don't use the "standard" version of this trope where they break into programming to announce breaking news.. Many times, the telops themselves coincidentally relate to whatever is currently being run at the time (for instance, a travel program on Niigata running during the 2004 earthquake in the region). This is known as [[https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E6%9D%B1%E4%BC%9D%E8%AA%AC The Legend of TV Tokyo]].

* When North Korea launched a missle over Hokkaido, the morning news program of Creator/TVTokyo was extended by 30 minutes to cover this topic, making it the first pre-emption of ''Oha Suta'' in it's 20-year-run to not be related to sports coverage. As a result of this incident, the rerun of ''Anime/KemonoFriends'' that came on afterwards ran with no advertising.

* On March 16, 2020, all of the Big 4 broadcast TV stations in the United States (CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX) suspended their shows from 10:00AM until 12:30PM for news coverage of the coronavirus. Most notably, this was the report that said that all businesses would be closed due to the outbreak.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru4NZiD5MYw In this video where Shark watches]] ''Series/TheMandalorian'' on Creator/DisneyPlus, colored bars appear suddently and [[spoiler: cut into the infamous Sprite Cranberry commercial]] in order to alert him that [[spoiler: his whole fridge has been emptied and its' contents were all replaced with Sprite Cranberry cans]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru4NZiD5MYw In this video where Shark watches]] ''Series/TheMandalorian'' on Creator/DisneyPlus, colored bars appear suddently and [[spoiler: cut into the infamous Sprite Cranberry commercial]] in order to alert him that [[spoiler: his whole fridge has been emptied and its' contents were all replaced with Sprite Cranberry cans]].
* [[https://twitter.com/thesharkpuppet/status/1222297163734142978?s=20 In a video where Shark is watching his own [=YouTube=] channel]], an Emergency Broadcast message pops up, followed by [[spoiler: a man on a beach, who is played by the same actor as Shark's dad, warning of the coronavirus, [[StealthPun which in this case is caused by drinking a specific brand of beer]]]]. This causes Shark to [[spoiler: throw his Corona beer that he was drinking at the ground and scream]].

** [[http://www.allyngibson.com/?p=6292 Something similar happened]] during an airing of ''[[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown]]'', but reporting on the death of Music/WhitneyHouston.

* During a live broadcast of ''Series/MondayNightFootball'' in 1980, Music/JohnLennon's assassination was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n73GFvAyIjs announced on-air]] by commentator Howard Cosell. (This was dramatized in the 2016 film ''Film/TheLennonReport'' showing how Cosell got the news and decided it had to be announced live during the game.)

** The second part of the same impeachment trial, occuring from January 21-23rd, 2020, interrupted 5 hours' worth of PBS programming, including several Creator/PBSKids shows, with ''WesternAnimation/CuriousGeorge'', ''Series/OddSquad'', ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'', ''WesternAnimation/NatureCat'', ''WesternAnimation/Cyberchase'' and ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'' not airing that day on many PBS stations. Some affilates, including one in Connecticut, decided to air these programs from 5 to 9PM (with a break for ''The PBS [=NewsHour=]'' in between the first hour and the last three hours) following the trial.