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It's a Jackson vs. Jackson showdownABC, NBC engage in a battle fit for a 'King'
(CNN) -- To a long history of television silliness -- from the opening of Al Capone's vault to "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire" -- add another event: the Night of the Battling Jacksons. At 9 p.m. EST Monday, NBC will air a two-hour edition of "Dateline NBC" titled "Michael Jackson Unmasked," which will present a history of the pop star, including an in-depth look at his plastic surgery. Not to be outdone, at the same time ABC will rerun the "Living With Michael Jackson" documentary it broadcast February 6. That two-hour show, a British documentary that ABC purchased for more than $5 million, will be preceded by a special one-hour "Primetime" that will focus on the latest Jackson news. (No word on whether the Jackson updates will include mentions of these shows, allowing the snake to eat its own tail.) All told, between February 6 and 20, there will be at least 20 hours of Jackson programming scheduled to air on broadcast and cable television. Why all this interest in the self-proclaimed "King of Pop," who hasn't had a major hit in years? "Michael Jackson is the ultimate traffic accident," Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Entertainment, told The New York Times on Friday. "People can't take their eyes off him." Big numbersThe numbers bear Zucker out. More than 27 million people watched the original ABC telecast of "Living With Michael Jackson," making it the highest-rated show of the week. In Britain, where the tabloids have never let "Wacko Jacko" rest, the show was watched by 15 million -- in a country with about one-fifth the population of the United States. The show, termed the "longest suicide note in history" by one TV executive, became water-cooler conversation for days. Jackson himself wasn't happy with the documentary, done with British interviewer Martin Bashir. The program showed Jackson blithely purchasing millions of dollars in pottery and paintings in Las Vegas, Nevada, walking his masked children through hotels and finally dangling the youngest, nicknamed "Blanket," over a hotel balcony in Berlin, Germany. The latter earned worldwide coverage and condemnation. "I trusted Martin Bashir to come into my life and that of my family because I wanted the truth to be told," Jackson said in a statement from his London, England, publicist. The film was "a tawdry attempt to misrepresent [my] life and [my] abilities as a father." Jackson will get his own chance to respond later this week. Fox has paid in excess of $5 million for the rights to a film made by Jackson's representatives, which will allegedly show outtakes and additional footage intended to counter Bashir's interpretation. That program is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. EST Thursday. But even this film comes with controversy. The filmmaker behind it, F. Marc Schaffel, is a former director of hard-core gay pornography, according to a report in the New York Daily News. A decade of controversyBut then again, the Michael Jackson frenzy is all about controversy. Since the early '90s, when the star was accused of molestation by the parents of a 13-year-boy, Jackson has been more in the news for his private life than his recordings. The singer denied the allegation and no charges were filed, but an out-of-court settlement was made. Speculation has surrounded Jackson's facial appearance, his two short-lived marriages and life at his estate, Neverland. At the same time, his album sales have gone into decline. After his last record, 2001's "Invincible," sold 2 million copies -- a fine showing for most artists but well below the 20 million-plus records Jackson sold in his '80s heydey -- Jackson accused the then-head of Sony Music, Tommy Mottola, of being a "racist" and "very, very devilish." There's more interest now in Jackson as a circus sideshow and less as an artist. With February the most important "sweeps" month in TV -- a time when local stations set their advertising rates -- competition is cutthroat for ratings. A special on Jackson may be just the ticket. Otherwise, notes Zucker, people probably will watch the finale of "Joe Millionaire," which analysts expect to win Monday night anyway. It's made for one bizarre February, a month that in previous years has seen the appearance of the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964, the triumph of the U.S hockey team at the Winter Olympics in 1980 and the finale to "M*A*S*H" in 1983. As Zucker told Daily Variety, "This is clearly one of the most ridiculous sweeps in modern American TV history."
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