As the coronavirus impact grows, TV is making quick adjustments.
CBS and ABC are filling the voids left by canceled basketball games. That means more reruns, plus spreading the two-hour “Hawaii Five-0” (shown here) finale over two weeks.
And PBS has a helpful reminder: We’ve been through much worse. Changes include:
PBS
Two “American Experience” documentaries will rerun – one online, the other on March 31 – to show past health crises.
“Influenza 1918” is streaming now at www.pbs.org. It’s from 1998 – the 80th anniversary of the beginning, when soldiers at an Army base near Boston suddenly began to die. This strain of flu, a new one, eventually killed 600,000 Americans
And “The Polio Crusade” will rerun at 9 p.m. March 31. It aired in 2009, interviewing survivors and tracing the rush to find a vaccine.
Also, there’s a “NewsHour” special. “Confronting Coronavirus” will be 8 p.m. Thursday, March 19.
ABC
When pro basketball suspended its season, ABC was left with a hole each Saturday.
For the first one, March 14, it will simply have reruns. “Shark Tank” is 8 p.m., with “American Idol” auditions from 9-11 p.m.
CBS
There are much bigger holes on CBS, which had planned to have the NCAA tournament fill up prime time on Thursdays, Friday and Saturdays, plus daytime Thursdays through Sundays.
Complicating that is the fact that two Thursday comedies had finished their seasons, with their replacements not coming until April 2. The new prime time plan has:
– Thursdays: Reruns of “Young Sheldon” at 8 and 8:31 p.m. and “Mom” at 9. Transplanted Monday shows will rerun at 9:30 – “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” on March 19, “The Neighborhood” on March 26. At 10 p.m. are reruns of “Tommy” on March 19 and “FBI: Most Wanted” on March 26.
– Fridays: “MacGyver” at 8, “Hawaii Five-0” at 9 and “Blue Bloods” at 10. On March 20, those are all reruns; on March 27, however, “MacGyver” and “Five-0” are new. That means the “Five-0” series-finale on April 3 will be one hour, not two.
– Saturday: On March 21, reruns of “FBI” at 8 and “NCIS: New Orleans” at 9. On March 28, the only change is an extra “48 Hours” at 9.