How TV Will Cover the Show

Oscar fans know very well that watching the telecast is only half the fun. Seeing the arrivals and the post-mortems is just as important in fueling up to participate in the next day’s gossiping. To that end, television will be more accommodating than ever this year.

The telecast of the Academy Awards will begin at 6 p.m. on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42).

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The Arrivals: KABC-TV Channel 7, cable’s E! Entertainment Television channel and CNN will chronicle the arrival of celebrities at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. E! begins its coverage at 4 p.m., with Steve Kmetko, Michael Castner and Paula Poundstone. KABC’s coverage, with Roger Ebert and Pam Thomson hosting, begins at 5 p.m. CNN will offer a half-hour special at 2:30 p.m., with updates at 3 and 5 p.m.

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Post-Show: As soon as the Oscars conclude, E! will be back live with a two-hour program featuring interviews and backstage reports. CNN will present a live, half-hour summation on “Showbiz Today” at 9:30 p.m. The KABC wrap-up, with Ebert’s commentary, begins about 10 p.m., after “The Barbara Walters Special.”

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The Alternatives: Comedy Central will present its usual lineup opposite the Academy Awards tonight, but at the bottom of the screen will run a printed “crawl” giving “results, commentary and factoids” about the awards as they are announced. The Bravo channel will run award-winning shorts during the Oscar telecast, interrupting whenever ABC goes to commercial to show segments taped last weekend at the Independent Spirit Awards, which recognize achievement in independent films.