Whitney Houston Funeral: How Cable Is Covering Saturday’s Event

Several cable networks will offer live coverage of Saturday’s Whitney Houston funeral from Newark, N.J.’s New Hope Baptist Church.

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BET (along with CENTRIC) will cover the funeral on its news special, Live: The Homegoing of Whitney Houston, beginning at 8:30 a.m. PT. BET Remembers Whitney, a one-hour special commemorating the late entertainer, will follow the live coverage. On the special, BET News correspondent Bevy Smith interviews Houston’s “confidents and colleagues” – including Kim Burrell, Kelley Price, Faith Evans, Ledisi, India.Arie, Tisha Martin Campbell and Tichina Arnold.

Bounce TV, a new cable channel aimed at African-American viewers will air the funeral without commercial interruption starting at 9 a.m. PT.

CNN will broadcast the funeral live anchored by Piers Morgan, Soledad O’Brien, and Don Lemon on Whitney Houston: Life, Death Music starting at 11:00 a.m. ET. It will also livestream the event at its website.

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E! plans to air live and online without interruptions from inside the church. It will also send live tweets from the event and encourages viewers to join in using the hashtag #WhitneyTributes. Jason Kennedy will anchor the coverage along with insight into the details of the event and latest news provided by E!’s Chief News Correspondent Ken Baker and E! Online’s Senior Editor Marc Malkin.

Fox News Channel’s live coverage starts at 8:30 a.m. PT anchored by Jon Scott and Uma Pemmaraju in New York and Kelly Wright reporting from outside the Newark church. It will stream the funeral live on its site while breaking from its broadcast with updates from the event.

HLN’s live coverage starts at 9 a.m. PT, anchored by Ryan Smith and Susan Hendricks with Jane Velez-Mitchell and AJ Hammer in Newark.

MSNBC’s Weekends with Alex Witt will start its coverage at 9 a.m. PT, with Craig Melvin reporting from Newark.

Among those attending the funeral are Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown; their daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown; Kevin Costner; Dionne Warwick, Houston’s cousin; Alicia Keys; Tyler Perry; Rickey Minor; CeCe Winans, Bobbi Kristina’s godmother; and gospel singers Kim Burrell and Donnie McClurkin.

Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder are slated to perform, while Houston’s longtime producer and mentor, Clive Davis, will be a speaker.

Houston died Saturday at the Beverly Hilton hotel, at the age of 48. Her body was found “underwater and apparently unconscious” in a bathtub in her hotel room, police said. An autopsy was completed — but the results are on security hold pending a toxicology report.

Her body was flown into Newark on Monday night in Perry’s private jet; the casket was then driven to the Newark’s Whigham Funeral Home, which is handling the services.