Television networks and streaming services continue to respond to the coronavirus crisis with special programming aimed at breaking down the most recent developments and the important issues for viewers.
Here’s the latest:
Airing Friday night is “Bravery and Hope: 7 Days on the Front Line” (9 p.m. May 15, CBS). It’s an hourlong special that follows emergency physicians and critical care specialists struggling to save patients suffering from COVID-19.
A team of CBS News journalists recently spent a week embedded at at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, the largest hospital in the hardest-hit borough of New York City. At the time the reporters were there, the hospital’s Moses Campus was bursting with nearly 700 patients, 80 percent of whom were diagnosed with COVID-19.
The hospital was forced to convert an auditorium to treat the staggering increase in COVID-19 patients – 70 of whom died during the week CBS News was embedded. Alongside the loss, there were victories: in that same span, more than 300 patients recovered and were able to go home.
The documentary captures the toll the disease has taken on one of the poorest and worst-stricken neighborhoods in New York City and the nation. A Bronx father lights candles and prays that his son, a first responder, will recover and come home from the hospital. From the back of a pickup truck, a parish priest rolls through the neighborhood with a loudspeaker, blessing the sick and homebound.
And a Montefiore nurse, Selena Thomas, grows weary as she counts the lives lost to a cruel and mysterious virus.
“It’s necessary for us to acknowledge that some communities have been touched by COVID more than others,” she says. “If we don’t acknowledge that, we can’t fix the problem.”
— Also debuting on Friday is “The Color of COVID” (7 p.m. PT; 10 p.m. ET, CNN). In this hourlong live program, anchor Don Lemon and CNN political commentator Van Jones explore the impact of the coronavirus on communities of color, and provide viewers with ways they can help.
The special will feature interviews with Robert Smith, founder, CEO & Chairman of Vista Equity Partners, Bishop T.D. Jakes, and former Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, plus video messages from Samuel L. Jackson, Mario Lopez, Common, Alfre Woodard and more.— Friday also brings a coronavirus-themed installment of “Washington Week” (8 p.m., PBS; check local listings).
The program will examine the tense push and pull between those who demand that the country be reopened and healthcare officials who warn that continued vigilance is needed to suppress the virus. Joining host Robert Costa for a panel discussion are Weijia Jiang of CBS News, Jake Sherman of Politico, Abby Phillip of CNN, and Jonathan Lemiere of The Associated Press.
