THE NEW YORK TIMES THE LIVINI

TV Notes Jeremy Gerard

■ The election and its coverage ■ Revisiting Peacock Down Under How hungry are the networks for Dallas, November 1963 ■ new markets? NBC has just ex- Peacock joins koala: panded its six-year-old agreement with the Australian Television Net- NBC expands pact with Australian television. work, which already has access to all NBC programming. Under the new agreement, NBC has the option of ac- pact of polls and the influence of cam- Election Coverage quiring 15 percent of Qintex Austral- paign managers on political coverage ia, which owns the Australian net- Pre- and post-election programs: in the media. work. That network would become Tonight, public television will focus NBC's first overseas affiliate. most of its biggest political guns on Nov. 22, 1963, Revisited the outcome of the Presidential elec- From the You Were There depart- tion. A two-hour program, optimisti- ment: On Nov. 22, the Arts & Enter- cally called "The Last Word," will tainment cable channel, which is Sweeping Shows feature commentary by Robert Mac- owned by NBC, ABC and the Hearst November is a "sweeps" month, Neil, Jim Lehrer and Charlayne Corporation, will devote six hours to a Hunter-Gault, of the "MacNeil/Leh- when television advertising rates are replay of NBC's coverage of the as- adjusted for Vie coming quarter on rer Newshour"; Paul Duke, the host sassination of President Kennedy in of "Washington Week in Review"; the basis of ratings. That means the 1963, including the live reports from networks will be doing everything Louis Rukeyser, of "Wall Street correspondents Chet Huntley, David Week"; William Greider, a corre- they can get away with to attract Brinkley, Robert MacNeil, Frank viewers — from the steamiest mini- spondent for "Frontline" and for McGee, and the host of this special Rolling Stone magazine, and Bill series to lurid special news reports to broadcast, Edwin Newman, who was nose-breaking news on the talk Moyers, who probably doesn't need a member of the network news team any introduction at all. Roger Mudd shows. Thus, CBS's "Spies, Lies and covering the assassination. Naked Thighs," NBC dubbing Vanna will be the host of the program, which A little sooner — on Nov. 17 — CBS is to focus on the major issues con- White the "Goddess of Love" in a News will mark the events in Dallas made-for-television movie, and fronting the winner of tomorrow's 25 years ago with "Four Days in election. ABC's "National Love and Sex Test.; November: The Assassination of As a public service — and in per- Tomorrow in its late-night slot, President Kennedy" a two-hour spe- ABC News will present "Viewpoint: haps its most ingenious maneuver yet cial. The CBS News anchor Dan Rath- to attract some viewers of its own - Covering Politics — Who's to er, who reported the assassination Blame?" with the "Nightline" an- "USA Today: The Television Show" from Dallas in 1963, is the host of the has begun a nightly segment called chor, Ted Koppel, as host. This will be program, which will begin with Wal- the 24th edition of "Viewpoint," in "Sweeps Sleaze Update," charting ter Cronkite's announcement of the what the program calls the sleaze which a selected audience is given the shooting and end with the funeral cor- opportunity to speak with journalists factor on television. Thus the pro- tege from the Capitol to Arlington Na- gram will let viewers see what net- on current Issues. Tomorrow's pro- tional Cemetery and the burial of the gram will cover such topics as the im- work is getting down and dirtiest on President. any given day or night.

3 ARTS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1988