Royal Flush: Di Sagas on ABC and CBS

ABC and CBS have a royal battle scheduled this month: ABC’s “Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After” will battle head-to-head with the same foibles of Princess Diana, along with the Duchess of York, in CBS’ “The Women of Windsor” on Oct. 25.

The CBS project is not to be confused with NBC’s tale that aired Monday night, “Fergie & Andrew: Behind the Palace Doors,” which told “the truth behind the headlines, the stories behind the shocks” of the storybook romance and tabloid breakup of England’s Duke of York and Sarah Ferguson.

CBS has no plans to reschedule “Women of Windsor,” although it could be preempted if the World Series reaches a seventh game. “We had it scheduled before they did,” a CBS spokeswoman said Thursday. “ABC put their movie up against ours.”

ABC, however, claims to have scheduled “Charles and Diana” first, and has no intention of changing the air time. “We made our plans more than a week ago,” said ABC spokesman Jim Brochu. “Why would CBS schedule a movie if there was a possibility of a seventh World Series game that night?”

There’s nothing unusual about two TV movies telling similar stories--although a royal network flush is a bit unusual. The CBS movie on Sunday night--”The Danger of Love”--is identical in subject matter to “A Murderous Affair: The Carolyn Warmus Story,” a high-rated movie that was broadcast on ABC last month. But at no time in recent memory have two network movies about the same subject matter aired simultaneously.