Impeachment Coverage: We Interrupt This Program...

Broadcast executives have been moaning that this unpopular story is costing them plenty, but maybe they don't realize just how much. "They've read the polls that indicate the public is fed up and tuned out," says TIME senior reporter Bill Tynan. "While they believe it is their duty to cover a news event of this magnitude, they lose all sorts of income from the advertisers for regular programming whose spots are pre-empted by the live coverage of impeachment."

The network ambivalence is glad tidings for the three all-news cable outfits, which have less ad revenue to worry about losing anyway. Anyone who wants continuous coverage will be turning to them. Great stories often change news-viewing habits: "Nightline" was born amid the Iran hostage crisis, and CNN came of age with its coverage of Desert Storm. "Impeachment gives each of the cable networks the opportunity to establish the credibility of their reporting and analysis," says Tynan. "And so the great TV story of impeachment will be to see how each of those networks did." And how many of those viewers stick.