S.C. CBS Affiliates To Air Final 30 Minutes of Debate Tonight

CBS affiliates in South Carolina are hoping to make it up to viewers who missed the last half hour of the debate, by re-broadcasting the final 30 minutes.

Upstate affiliate WSPA, who will air the show on WYCW (Channel 62), and Columbia station WLTX both plan to show the final portion of the debate at 7:30 tonight. Both also have the final half hour posted on their websites.

WCSC in Charleston has the final 30 minutes up on their website for viewers.

During Saturday’s live CBS News/National Journal debate at Wofford College in Spartanburg, CBS newsman Scott Pelley told viewers that when the debate moved to the National Journal and Face the Nation websites, stations in South Carolina and on the West Coast would still carry the debate.

In a statement to viewers, WSPA-TV General Manager Bob Romine writes, “We have heard your concerns loud and clear and offer an apology to everyone who watched the Republican Debate on CBS Saturday night. Due to a miscommunication between CBS News and its affiliates regarding the conclusion of the debate, we were not able to bring you the final thirty minutes live.”

Romine also said the announcement that South Carolina’s CBS stations would have access to a final half hour of the debate took WSPA by surprise.

“This decision was not, in any way, an editorial or programming decision by WSPA, but rather a miscommunication for which we deeply regret,” Romine wrote.

Watch the entire debate online by clicking here.