Monday, September 1, 2008

With the impending landfall of Hurricane Gustav, broadcast networks and cable channels were shifting their coverage plans yesterday. Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams, who had been scheduled to anchor prime-time convention coverage tonight, were rerouted from St. Paul, Minn., to the New Orleans area, as were CNN's Anderson Cooper and Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith. MSNBC's David Gregory will fill in at the convention for Keith Olbermann, who is in New York to anchor hurricane coverage.

Here is a sampling of the TV schedule for the convention's shortened Day 1:

Morning:"American Morning" is on CNN at 5 a.m. with John Roberts reporting from St. Paul; "Fox and Friends" at 7 am. has an interview with first lady Laura Bush.

Gavel open:3 p.m. Eastern time; procedural matters will be addressed before the convention is recessed a few hours later.

Daytime: Wolf Blitzer hosts "The Situation Room" at 4 p.m. on site; Fox News Channel has "Your World With Neil Cavuto" at 4 p.m., and Megan Kelly and Bill Hemmer anchoring "The Strategy Room" in St. Paul at 5 p.m.; Chris Matthews is on MSNBC with a panel of political analysts including Rachel Maddow, Pat Buchanan, Eugene Robinson and Norah O'Donnell.

Prime Time: Fox News Channel plans to continue its coverage from St. Paul into the evening, including "Hannity and Colmes" at 9 p.m. The broadcast networks join in for an hour at 10 p.m. and will mix convention coverage with dispatches from New Orleans. Tom Brokaw hosts on NBC, joined by colleagues Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd and Luke Russert; ABC's George Stephanopoulos anchors on site and David Wright reports from the McCain campaign on Channel 7. PBS's Jim Lehrer will anchor coverage of both the hurricane and events in St. Paul at 7 p.m.

-- Emily Yahr