The two biggest ripped-from-the-headlines TV movies of the season will do battle in the November sweeps ratings war. NBC has scheduled "Saving Jessica Lynch" directly opposite CBS's "The Elizabeth Smart Story" on Sunday, Nov. 9.
For the record, CBS was there first, announcing its airdate several weeks ago. But nobody at that network is particularly surprised that NBC decided to create this confrontation by scheduling "Jessica" against "Elizabeth."
How does this serve the viewers? It doesn't. But serving viewers is not what the sweeps are all about. Those ratings periods are when the warfare among the networks becomes the most vicious.
But it's not like the production of either movie was an altruistic undertaking. In both cases, it's networks profiting from sensational headlines.
While both involve happy-ending rescues of teenagers, the two movies represent two ends of the spectrum — authorized and unauthorized docudramas.
In the case of CBS's "Elizabeth Smart Story," the network bought the rights to the book written by Elizabeth's parents, Ed and Lois, about their daughter's kidnapping and eventual return. This is very much an effort to tell their story.
That's the point in all such based-on-fact TV movies — it's one side of the story. It's not necessarily the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It's one point of view.
Which is not to say that there are any intentional attempts to mislead in an authorized docudrama. But there is always the temptation to put the best face on the facts — to tell the story the way those cooperating with the production want it to be told.
That's certainly understandable. But it doesn't necessarily make for a good TV movie, let alone one that's believable.
(Just to make it clear, that's true of authorized docudramas in general. At this point, neither "Jessica" nor "Elizabeth" has been shown to critics.)
At the same time, you can hardly blame the Smarts for wanting to be involved in the making of the TV movie. After all, one was going to get made with or without their cooperation. And it's easy to argue that it's better to cooperate and have some say in the project.
All you'll have to do is flip the channel on Nov. 9 to get the other side of the coin. NBC couldn't get Jessica Lynch to cooperate in the making of its movie, so it just went ahead and made it anyway.
Never mind that Lynch has said she can't remember what happened when she was taken captive in Iraq during the American invasion. Never mind that, according to well-researched reports by a number of reputable news outlets, the original story told of her heroic actions, the conditions under which she was being held and the circumstances of her rescue were fabricated.
NBC is subscribing to the theory that you should never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
The network has tried to write around Lynch by making the story "an action/adventure movie about what happened to this unit and really the story of one brave Iraqi lawyer who saved her life," said NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker, ignoring the fact that there are questions about the veracity of that lawyer's story because — you guessed it! — NBC bought the rights to his tale.
"Quite frankly, Jessica's part in the story is probably the smallest part of the story," said Zucker, who went on to admit that "there's a lot of questions" about the whole incident.
"That's what makes for a great story," he said. "And in most made-for-TV movies, they're based on some fact and often there's a little fiction because we'll never know for sure what exactly happened."
Again, never let the facts — or lack thereof — get in the way of a good story.
How ridiculous does this get? One of the producers of "Saving Jessica Lynch" told the New York Times that it wasn't their fault if they didn't get the story right because Lynch wouldn't cooperate.
I'm guessing there won't be a disclaimer on the teleflick alerting viewers to this mindset.
There has been no small amount of criticism locally of the Smarts for their participation in the CBS movie. And, in a perfect world, you'd hope that they might have the option of staying out of it and, thus, making the project go away.
But, when you look at what NBC is doing to Jessica Lynch, the Smarts' decision is certainly understandable.
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com