`CBS NEWS EXTRA' SQUEEZES ONE MORE SERVING OF O.J.Byline: Kinney Littlefield Orange County Register The twisted television magic is still there, the weird ogling-the-car-crash fascination. Even now, a year after jurors acquitted O.J. Simpson of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson Nicole Brown Simpson (May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the wife of American football player O.J. Simpson. Found murdered at her home in Los Angeles, California, along with her friend Ronald Goldman, her death led to one of the most controversial and widely-discussed criminal and Ronald Goldman, O.J. the TV Story keeps right on truckin' along. This isn't just because of the pending Simpson civil trial in Santa Monica, from which TV cameras are banned. No, America is still wildly obsessed ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. with puzzling out what really happened to Ron and Nicole and O.J. in June 1994. Diane Sawyer's recent interview with former LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. detective and prosecution witness Mark Fuhrman on ABC's ``PrimeTime Live'' and Barbara Walters' interview with Simpson buddy Robert Kardashian on ABC's ``20/20'' pushed both programs onto the Nielsen list of top 10-ranked shows for Oct. 7-13, beating ``Cosby,'' ``60 Minutes'' and ``The X-Files'' and clobbering top 30-rated National and American League baseball championships on Fox and NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. . Together the two ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. newsmagazines lured about 5 million more viewing households than the last Clinton-Dole presidential debate drew on ABC, CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. , NBC, and CNN CNN or Cable News Network Subsidiary company of Turner Broadcasting Systems. It was created by Ted Turner in 1980 to present 24-hour live news broadcasts, using satellites to transmit reports from news bureaus around the world. collectively. (Fox aired baseball instead of the debate.) In all, a year after the not-guilty verdict, America is still juiced See Joost. See also juice. up on O.J. Certainly, we're way more psyched about a brutal double murder than we are about campaign platforms and our so-called national pastime, both of which have dragged network viewership down this fall. ``Yes, America still has a real thirst for Simpson,'' CBS News' Paula Zahn said recently from New York. During the criminal trial Zahn contributed dozens of hours of Simpson coverage to the CBS morning news CBS Morning News is the half-hour daily television broadcast from CBS News that airs following Up to the Minute. It airs from 4:30 to 5 a.m. in many markets (it is updated for the different time zones across the United States) and features late-breaking news . Now Zahn anchors ``CBS News Extra: O.J. in Black and White,'' an hourlong review of the impact of the Simpson case on black Americans and the American legal system, airing at 10 tonight. The special features an interview between Simpson and CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker, taped last summer, before the gag order in the civil trial went into effect. Also featured is a cavalcade of familiar O.J. characters, including Nicole's sister Denise Brown, prosecutor Christopher Darden and defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, plus an update on infamous Simpson house guest and unlikely celebrity Kato Kaelin. Despite the special's title, ``our Simpson fascination isn't just about race or race issues,'' Zahn said. ``This was one of the first court cases in our lifetime where the American public was truly deeply invested in the details of the justice system - where people would skip work to watch and actually fantasize about being a member of the jury,'' Zahn said of the trial's ongoing stranglehold on our heart. Still, thanks in large measure to television, issues of race obviously, indelibly stain our perception of the Simpson case. Zahn spent the weekend of Oct. 12-13 in Southern California, interviewing Darden for ``O.J. in Black and White,'' as well as Simpson criminal trial jurors David Aldana and Yolanda Crawford. THE FACTS The show: ``CBS News Extra: O.J. in Black and White.'' When: 10 tonight. Where: CBS (Channel 2). |
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