Early in the morning on Sunday, December 1, 2013, a Metro-North train traveling on the Hudson Line suddenly derailed while going around a sharp turn near the Spuyten Duyvil station. The train charged off of the tracks and the first car came feet away from plunging into the Harlem River, but stopped before an even larger disaster occurred. The New York City news stations immediately sprang into action. By 8am, the WCBS, WNBC, WABC, WNYW, and WPIX newsrooms were buzzing with news and developments, as eyewitness accounts flooded in.
The first to report the breaking news was WABC 7, sending out a tweet at 7:53am and a breaking news alert to the users of their apps at 7:57am. WNBC was next, followed by WCBS, WPIX, and WNYW. WABC came in with breaking news coverage at 9AM with the beginning of Eyewitness News This Morning, anchored by Phil Lipof and Toni Yates. At the same time, WCBS and WNBC preempted their network programming, "CBS News Sunday Morning" and "Today," respectively.
TV news analyst Brian Stelter, the anchor of CNN's "Reliable Sources," declared early on that WABC had the best coverage of the accident, with the best live shots from NewsCopter 7 and the ground.
On WCBS, Cindy Hsu and Andrea Grymes anchored the continuous coverage until 1pm, with reporters on the ground and in the sky, in Chopper 2 HD. WNBC had Gus Rosendale and Pat Battle anchoring for five straight hours until they went off the air at 1:30pm, with multiple reporters on the ground and in Chopper 4. WABC was the only station to make anchor changes. At 10am, Bill Ritter took over for Toni Yates, and Diana Williams took Phil's seat shortly after. That team continued until WABC went off the air at 1pm.
WNYW came on the air at 11am with Antwan Lewis anchoring and went off at 12 Noon, to rejoin Fox Football Sunday.
The morning was full of eyewitness interviews and photos flowing steadily into the newsrooms, but WPIX was notably absent from the morning coverage. The station finally broke in at noon, with Tamsen Fadal and Scott Stanford anchoring. PIX would stay on for the next seven hours.
The Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made her rounds, first phoning in to WNBC, then WCBS, and finally updating viewers on WABC's air for over ten minutes. When WCBS, WNYW, and WABC went off the air at noon, WNBC stayed on the air, providing coverage until they got an exclusive live phone interview with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo at about 1:15pm. Once the interview was finished, WNBC went off the air at 1:30pm.
When the NTSB gave a press conference at 4:40pm, WABC and WNBC broke in, joining the PIX coverage already in progress. However, WCBS and WNYW were in contracted football coverage, so they could not break away. WCBS aired the press conference on sister station WLNY, but WNYW didn't air it at all. The stations returned to regular programming about 15 minutes later.
WNBC aired its normal 6pm newscast, anchored by David Ushery and Shiba Russell. WABC aired a special one hour edition of Eyewitness News at 6, anchored by Joe Torres and Sade Baderinwa, preempting ABC World News with David Muir. WCBS and WNYW could not air 6pm newscasts due to the football games, while WPIX continued their seven hour coverage.
For Monday, December 2nd, WCBS and WABC have announced that their newscasts will begin half an hour earlier than usual, at 4am. WPIX normally begins at this time. WNBC and WNYW have not commented on their Monday morning schedules.
Stay with NYNewser and Ny_NewsObserver on Twitter for the latest updates on this story, which will be continuously updated as more information becomes available.
The first to report the breaking news was WABC 7, sending out a tweet at 7:53am and a breaking news alert to the users of their apps at 7:57am. WNBC was next, followed by WCBS, WPIX, and WNYW. WABC came in with breaking news coverage at 9AM with the beginning of Eyewitness News This Morning, anchored by Phil Lipof and Toni Yates. At the same time, WCBS and WNBC preempted their network programming, "CBS News Sunday Morning" and "Today," respectively.
TV news analyst Brian Stelter, the anchor of CNN's "Reliable Sources," declared early on that WABC had the best coverage of the accident, with the best live shots from NewsCopter 7 and the ground.
On WCBS, Cindy Hsu and Andrea Grymes anchored the continuous coverage until 1pm, with reporters on the ground and in the sky, in Chopper 2 HD. WNBC had Gus Rosendale and Pat Battle anchoring for five straight hours until they went off the air at 1:30pm, with multiple reporters on the ground and in Chopper 4. WABC was the only station to make anchor changes. At 10am, Bill Ritter took over for Toni Yates, and Diana Williams took Phil's seat shortly after. That team continued until WABC went off the air at 1pm.
WNYW came on the air at 11am with Antwan Lewis anchoring and went off at 12 Noon, to rejoin Fox Football Sunday.
The morning was full of eyewitness interviews and photos flowing steadily into the newsrooms, but WPIX was notably absent from the morning coverage. The station finally broke in at noon, with Tamsen Fadal and Scott Stanford anchoring. PIX would stay on for the next seven hours.
The Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made her rounds, first phoning in to WNBC, then WCBS, and finally updating viewers on WABC's air for over ten minutes. When WCBS, WNYW, and WABC went off the air at noon, WNBC stayed on the air, providing coverage until they got an exclusive live phone interview with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo at about 1:15pm. Once the interview was finished, WNBC went off the air at 1:30pm.
When the NTSB gave a press conference at 4:40pm, WABC and WNBC broke in, joining the PIX coverage already in progress. However, WCBS and WNYW were in contracted football coverage, so they could not break away. WCBS aired the press conference on sister station WLNY, but WNYW didn't air it at all. The stations returned to regular programming about 15 minutes later.
WNBC aired its normal 6pm newscast, anchored by David Ushery and Shiba Russell. WABC aired a special one hour edition of Eyewitness News at 6, anchored by Joe Torres and Sade Baderinwa, preempting ABC World News with David Muir. WCBS and WNYW could not air 6pm newscasts due to the football games, while WPIX continued their seven hour coverage.
For Monday, December 2nd, WCBS and WABC have announced that their newscasts will begin half an hour earlier than usual, at 4am. WPIX normally begins at this time. WNBC and WNYW have not commented on their Monday morning schedules.
Stay with NYNewser and Ny_NewsObserver on Twitter for the latest updates on this story, which will be continuously updated as more information becomes available.