The September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 had an important impact on broadcast and venue entertainment businesses, prompting cancellations, postponements, and changes in content. In the United States and the United Kingdom, planned television screenings of films and fictional programs where terrorism, plane crashes, bombs, or other related disasters were the primary subject were postponed or cancelled.
Numerous films were cancelled that were in production, and many films were edited. The most common way of editing was to delete or obscure shots of the World Trade Center. There were various reasons given for the alterations, including keeping material up-to-date, as a gesture of respect for those who died, and to avoid trauma for those emotionally affected by the attack. There are also many films which notably were not edited.
In all, roughly 45 films were edited or postponed because of the 9/11 attacks.
Some filmmakers have added the World Trade Center to films and television series that are set during periods when the buildings were still standing.
Some films kept scenes of the World Trade Center in them.
Television coverage of the September 11 attacks and their aftermath was the longest uninterrupted news event in the history of U.S. television, as the major U.S. broadcast networks were on the air for 93 continuous hours. From the moment the networks broadcast the news that the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, all programs and commercials were suspended, with all four networks broadcasting uninterrupted news coverage. This was the first time since the advent of cable and satellite television that a vast number of cable networks would suspend programming to air live news coverage of events. Programming on the cable and satellite channels were also altered in the immediate aftermath, as only appropriate re-runs were aired, and commercials were either changed, or suspended, and were replaced by PSA messaging to help victims. Millions of television viewers, watching live broadcasts of the attacks unfolding, would see the second plane hit the South Tower and both towers collapse.