Here’s a TV Guide Close-Up from September 1976 promoting the first presidential debate between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford:
On Thursday, September 23rd, 1976 at 9:30PM ET all three commercial networks (plus PBS) aired a presidential debate between President Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate. It was the first televised debate since the 1960 general election.
At roughly 10:51PM the audio suddenly cut out. For the next 27 minutes, the two men stood awkwardly on stage as the network news anchors did whatever they could to fill the time. It wasn’t until 11:18PM that the audio came back and the debate continued.
This particular Close-Up is from the Western New England Edition of TV Guide. Because the debate aired on every network there were no channel listings.
Image Credit:
TV Guide, September 18th, 1976 (Vol. 24, No. 38), Western New England Edition, A-99.