As heavy barrages battered northern Israel on Wednesday evening, Channel 13 declined a request from its news division to break into regular programming and instead continued airing the reality show Big Brother, according to accounts from within the broadcaster.
The request from the news division came after alerts were issued in Haifa, but the channel refused and chose to keep the entertainment program on the air.
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A frame from Channel 13’s Big Brother broadcast, with a sidebar showing rocket and missile alerts across northern Israel as heavy barrages struck the north
(Screengrab: Reshet)
Channel 12 also continued its regular programming and did not cut to a news bulletin, despite 82 alerts sounding over a span of an hour and a half in northern Israel.
The Kan public broadcaster continued airing The Upper Percentile game show without interrupting its broadcast, while Channel 14 kept its current affairs program The Patriots on the air and provided updates during the show.
Channel 13 declined to comment, saying only: “No comment.”