Schedule for TV Coverage of Malta Summit

President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will be holding the bulk of their saltwater summit behind closed portholes on two warships anchored in the Mediterranean this weekend, but that hasn’t deterred any of the networks or CNN from sending in their troops for extensive news coverage.

Network anchors Peter Jennings of ABC, Tom Brokaw of NBC and Dan Rather of CBS, who have all been skipping around Europe the past few weeks putting their personal stamp on the momentous changes in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, will be on hand in Malta to head up coverage for their respective networks. CNN’s Bernard Shaw will broadcast from Malta too.

All three networks and CNN will interrupt regularly scheduled programs to cover events live from the summit as they develop over the weekend.

Here is a breakdown of planned summit coverage. All times are subject to change as events dictate:

TODAY: CNN’s Bernard Shaw will be updating events on the hour throughout the day.

9:30 a.m. and 9:30 (CNN)--”Evans & Novak” discuss the first day of summit talks.

10 p.m. (2)(8)--”Saturday Night With Connie Chung” will feature Dan Rather summing up the events of Day One aboard the Soviet ship Slava. The program also will feature reports on the effect the summit is having on the inhabitants of the island nation of Malta, plus personal reminiscences of past summits from former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Cyrus Vance, and from Ted Sorensen, former special counsel to President John F. Kennedy.

SUNDAY: 4 a.m.--NBC, CBS, ABC and CNN will offer live coverage of Bush’s and Gorbachev’s press conferences from the cruiser Belknap and the Soviet ship Slava. All four news organizations will also offer summaries, recaps and analyses of the summit throughout the early-morning hours. CBS will air an expanded version of “Sunday Morning” with Charles Kuralt and Rather to accommodate this coverage. NBC will do the same with “Sunday Today.”

7:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.--CNN “Newsmaker Sunday” analyzes the summit with national security adviser Brent Scowcroft.

8 a.m. (4)--”Meet the Press” also will speak with Scowcroft about the behind-closed-doors developments at Malta.

9 a.m. (4)--The “McLaughlin Group” talks about the summit as well as abortion and the upheaval in Czechoslovakia.

10 a.m. (2)(8)--CBS plans to update the events in Malta with special reports at halftime of the NFL games.

11:30 a.m. (7)(3)(10)(42)--White House Chief of Staff John Sununu and Sens. George Mitchell (D-Me.) and Robert Dole (R-Kan.) discuss the superpower talks on “This Week With David Brinkley.”

2 p.m. (2); 11:30 p.m. (8)--Just off the boat, Secretary of State James Baker talks to Lesley Stahl on “Face the Nation.”

3:30 p.m. (2)--The summit and its impact on American foreign policy is the topic on “Newsmakers,” with guests Rep. David Dreir (R-Covina) and Dr. Arnold Horelick of the RAND/UCLA Center on Soviet Studies.

7 p.m. (2)(8)--”60 Minutes” features Mike Wallace interviewing Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov about Soviet reaction to the weekend meetings as well as a wrap-up report from Rather. The program will also profile singer Eartha Kitt.