US Presidential Debates to Air on BBC America

For the first time ever, BBC AMERCA will air all four Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates in their entirety, followed by distinctive and comprehensive analysis of the candidates' performance on the issues. The newscasts will air live from 9/8c to 11/10c on BBC America and BBC World News.

On Friday, September 26th, Washington Correspondent Katty Kay anchors the program live from the first debate between Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama in Oxford, Mississippi. Matt Frei will anchor the Vice Presidential debate on Thursday, October 2nd, as well as the following two Presidential debates on Tuesday, October 7th, and Wednesday, October 15th.

Executive producer Rome Hartman said: “BBC World News America will take viewers out of the spin room and into the real world. While our competitors spend time listening to campaign surrogates spouting pre-cooked claims of 'victory' for their candidate, we'll travel around the world to get real reaction from real people who've just watched the debate and made judgments for themselves.”

Culpeper, VA

I'm very familiar with Culpeper, VA. Just 30 miles from my home town, Fredericksburg, VA, it is where my Grandmother lived for the last 10 years of her life. Before "The Mall" was built, we would go up there to shop at their huge Leggett's (now Belk). We would go eat at one of several quaint eateries, one that had a giant pig out front. My cousin's daughter and her husband bought a home in Culpeper, just prior to their July 3, 2008 wedding.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I turned on the BBC Nightly News to find that they had chosen Culpeper as a town they would report on to "take the temperature" of the nation.

BBC News America will be showing the Democrat Convention. Having recently added Ted Koppel, formally of ABC late night fame, it should be interesting to see how they report it. I had planned to watch the convention on C-SPAN, but being curious, I will try BBC America for the convention. I have been watching more news on BBC America mainly because they actually report news. Imagine that!

BBC News may be found on your local PBS station (check local listings). It can also be seen on BBCAmerica: Monday-Friday 6am-9am; Monday-Friday 7pm-8pm with encore at 10:00; and weekend mornings 6:00am-6:30am.

Click here for the BBC News archived videoed segments about Culpeper.