Pop-Ed: Did ABC Wait Too Long to Air Their Charlie Sheen Exclusive?

By AOL TV Editors Posted Mar 1st 2011 12:15PM

ABC Interview with Charlie Sheen

Pop-Ed: At some point on Saturday evening, the folks at ABC News must have been feeling very proud of themselves.

Andrea Canning had just spent the day with Charlie Sheen, the first television reporter to do an extensive video with the actor since he let loose with various tirades on the radio and TMZ, causing CBS and the producers of 'Two and a Half Men' to shut things down for the season. ABC made the big announcement, calling it 'The First Interview,' and planned to debut it on 'GMA' this morning, followed by a big splashy '20/20' special tonight.

It may have been the first television interview Sheen gave, but it sure as heck wouldn't be the last.

The folks at the Alphabet Net got scooped, then scooped again, and then scooped yet again. But the way the network has been reacting to these scoops makes me wonder if they think that we're still in 1991 instead of 2011.

In the time between his Saturday interview with Canning and today, Sheen spoke to Jeff Rossen of NBC's 'Today' show, not once, but twice; 'Today' scooped ABC by airing Rossen's interview on Monday morning, and had more from the two of them this morning. Then Sheen spoke to TMZ for 40 minutes in that wonderful train wreck of a live UStream interview. At that point, you could see he was starting to calm down and be more reasonable in his rants.

Then finally, the kicker: an entire hour with Piers Morgan on CNN, where Sheen was his calmest yet. Sure, he wasn't exactly Barack Obama-level calm -- he still went off on John Stamos, AA, his dad and others -- but at least he said he regretted the "Chaim Levine" remark he directed toward Lorre, and he recanted his demand to be paid $3 million per episode.

ABC's response? They moved the clips of Canning's interview up to Monday's 'GMA.' But they still held the vast majority of the interview for tonight and their '20/20' special.

It feels like they're making a humongous mistake, doesn't it? Not only will the interview now look out of context with how the story is progressing, since on Saturday Sheen was still in hyper mode, as opposed to last night, but I can't imagine that he will tread any new ground. Rossen and TMZ already talked to "The Goddesses." Sheen's already talked about 'Major League 3' ad nauseum, and he's already talked about what it'll take to get things going again on 'Men.' What else is there to say here?

It's inconceivable that the folks at ABC News didn't think that Sheen would talk to anyone and everyone with a camera after they spent the day with him on Saturday. After all, Sheen had called into three different radio shows -- he called Dan Patrick twice -- to tell his side of his dispute with Lorre, Warner Bros. and CBS. He texted reporters at TMZ and RadarOnline, as well as Canning, late last week. It was highly likely that he wasn't offering ABC any kind of television exclusive.

After all, he wasn't asking for Barbara Walters or Diane Sawyer to interview him; he called in Canning, a very capable reporter but not one of the network's top-line names. That should have been a sign that Sheen wasn't going to just talk to ABC.

So what ABC News should have done was a) aired excerpts of the interview during the Sunday 'GMA,' then 2) blown off the deadly dull Oscars red carpet special and aired the '20/20' special at 7 on Sunday night. Yeah, the red carpet stuff has a lot of fans, but surely the first interview with Sheen under the glare of TV lights would have gotten higher ratings than Tim Gunn marveling at Melissa Leo's Elvis in Vegas outfit, right? Even if they had to pay a penalty to the Academy for blowing them off, it still would have been worth it.

ABC, and the other broadcast network news divisions, need to realize that things move a lot faster than they used to, and if they have a hot interview, they can't sit on it to draw out the anticipation. Now that Sheen's talked to everyone and their grandmother, that "scoop" that they got on Saturday doesn't feel so special now, does it?

Editorial by Joel Keller - Get More From Keller and TV Squad

Sheen Mania:
► To RadarOnline: Charlie Sheen Calls Martin Sheen's Support 'Bollocks'

► To 'Today' Show: 'We're at War' With CBS

Tags: charlie sheen

Comments

(11)

Tuesday 01 March

By are yo high

Vote down Vote up Report this

We you partying with Sheen when you wrote this article. It has no point and makes so sense!

Wednesday 02 March

By Joan

You people at Abc nbc and all the other net works that give this drug addict any kind of credence and interviews about what he thinks and wants his fans (hahaha)to know are just as crazy as he is .Stop making him such an Idol -I dont'think the younger generation need another scudz ball to look up to as there are plenty of them in the ssports worl. GET HIM OFF THE SCREEN AND OUT OF OUR VIEW!!!

By Polar Patrol

Are yo high?
We you partying?
Makes so sense?

Uh...you sure YOU haven't been partying with Sheen?

By stu

this lame network keeps Whoopie employed...so it's obviously run by idiots.

By Frank

You are wrong prove it

By rohrscheibcroh

agreed i liked her now i louth her face

By sharon

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Charlie,
Today was the frist time I saw you unravel. You are an icon. I am watching your demise as I write this. I was so on your side of this. But now you have shown your true colors. Good luck. You probably won't need it.

By krktoday

I think Charlie Sheen know's exactly what he is doing. He is on a publicity binge because he want's 30 million to write a book and he is doing all this crap to get people to think his book would be worth 30 million. He know's he won't be hired back on the show so he has to do whatever it take's to get his book sold. I think all the reporter's are playing right into his hand's.

By Tony D

Can this peace of trash. You have to laugh when they ask the two Bimbo's a question. Of course they're going to side with Dirt Bag (Sheen) he's the one paying the bills and buying the drugs. Enough said.

By Garry

ABC, NBC, CBS usually don't like to "report" anything negative about leftwing liberal moonbats. They're all about "spinning" for them. Look at how they are currently "spinning" to get sympathy for the union thugs who don't care WI is broke. Its just the same ole leftwing liberal "baghdad bob" spin... I imagine the lamestream media is used to being left out of the "actual news" loop, lol. They spend too much time making their own up as they go. Only reason they did cover sheen story, is because sheen won't let it go, rofl...

By the_fool

Yeah they should have interviewed him earlier when he was high as a kite ranting and raving in a room with porn stars and hookers. That would have made good T.V. and ratings of course - who cares who gets destroyed in its path. Good or bad this publicity is giving them a stage to make more and more money for all involved. While the people who do things to make this a better world - never get this kind of press and attention.

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