9/11 (film) - Broadcast

Broadcast

CBS aired 9/11 commercial-free on March 10, 2002, to mark the six months since the attacks. The film was watched by 39 million viewers, bringing in a rating/share of 22.3/33, and was the highest rated program that week. Hosted by actor Robert De Niro, CBS's broadcast was repeated on the first anniversary as well. The film aired in 103 countries in 2002 alone. The DVD of the documentary was released in proximity, although De Niro's footage was edited out of the DVD release. CBS re-aired the film, hosted again by De Niro, on September 10, 2006, the night before the fifth anniversary of the attacks. However, this version contained updates from the principal members of the documentary as of 2006.

The film was noted for its use of profanity, which in regular circumstances on American broadcast media would be subject to censorship by the broadcaster or the Federal Communications Commission. At the time of its broadcast, the FCC took no action against the network for violating indecency rules because doing so would have a negative connotation and would be interpreted as sanitizing history.

However, a recent ruling by a federal appeals court successfully granted a "temporary halt" to the FCC's enforcement of its indecency rules. This allowed CBS and any affiliates to air the documentary without edits and without fear of facing stiff fines.

On Sunday, September 11, 2011, CBS broadcast 9/11: Ten Years Later, once again hosted by Robert De Niro. The aftershow was updated by the Naudet brothers, Hanlon and CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky to include new interviews and footage on the lives of those involved with the documentary ten years later. In addition to the rebroadcast of the original documentary, the show also focused on the building of the new One World Trade Center, and on the health problems facing many of the firemen at Ground Zero. DeNiro was to be joined by the Naudet brothers and James Hanlon, a former New York fireman-turned-film director who was also present that day. As with all previous broadcasts of the film, CBS aired repeated viewer discretion warnings before and during the broadcast.