Switching Channels 1988

John L. “Sully” Sullivan, IV is the stead-fast, ever-calculating news director of Satellite News Network in Chicago, where the clock and the camera never stop. His world is turned when his best reporter and ex-wife, Christy Colleran, returns from a vacation she took with Blaine Bingham, the owner of a sporting goods company who is clearly sparking a new romance with her. The reunion is far from peaceful: Sully seizes on a dramatic moment to push Christy into covering a high-stakes story—the impending execution of Ike Roscoe, a convicted killer whose case has become a political lightning rod. The execution sits at the center of a tense political contest between the Governor, a communicator of power and public image, and Roy Ridnitz, the state’s determined district attorney, with the outcome potentially reshaping the upcoming Democratic primary.

As the plot thickens, Blaine’s arrival in Christy’s orbit adds complexity to the newsroom battlefield. The smarter-than-he-appears Blaine manages to snag train tickets to New York, arranging a path that could lead Christy away from Chicago and toward a new life. But Sully isn’t done. He enlists his junior reporter, Siegenthaler, to buy up every available transportation option out of town, hoping to tie Christy to the station and the story rather than to a distant city. The plan threads through a lunch date where Sully explains Roscoe’s case—from the outside, it seems Roscoe killed a drug dealer who was, in fact, an undercover cop. The revelation reframes the entire political drama around the execution and the public’s mood in the gubernatorial contest, forcing everyone to confront what justice and media power really mean in a crowded, televised world.

The motion of the plot shifts toward a dangerous publicity stunt turned personal crossroads. Blaine and Christy’s impending New York trip becomes a literal test of fear and trust when Sully engineers a dramatic trap in a skyscraper. Blaine, who fears heights, is coaxed into a glass elevator with [Siegenthaler], and the elevator climbs toward a dizzying height. A crippling anxiety attack stops the ride, trapping Blaine and Christy inside until the danger subsides and the two are brought back to the ground, where Christy’s quick thinking and resolve revive the fragile order of the newsroom world around them. In the aftermath, Christy rushes to be with Blaine, but a deeper, more fragile bond remains to be weighed against her career and the pull of the city she sometimes loves more than life on the air.

Meanwhile, the political clock keeps ticking. The Governor decides to issue a pardon for Ike Roscoe during the 11:00 pm news, a decision that would play out live for viewers across the state. Ridnitz, maneuvering to win the political moment, presses to move the execution up to 10:00 pm and invites the media to televise it. In a flash of dramatic tension, Ike is strapped into the chair and a sudden power surge interrupts the proceedings, allowing him to escape. The chase resumes as Christy spots Ike in a limousine with Blaine as they race away from the courthouse and toward the city’s streets and backroads.

Christy’s pursuit leads to a tense, improvised showdown in the courthouse press room, where Ike hides in the photo copier after Christy radios Sully with crucial information. Ridnitz arrives, claiming Ike was seen on the third floor, and a round of comic escapades unfolds as reporters converge and the truth begins to surface. Christy’s quick-witted reporting, aided by a deft handling of timing and camera presence, stalls Ridnitz long enough for the pardon to materialize on the desk of the newsroom. The climactic moment arrives when Sully takes the recovered tape—surreptitiously captured by the newsroom—and hands it to Siegenthaler to broadcast the confession that Ridnitz sought a political victory through the execution. The revelation reframes the entire event in a way that favors truth over edict, and the story closes with a strange sense of closure between old flames and the stubborn, ever-present pull of the airwaves.

In the final beat, Blaine chooses to walk away from Christy, recognizing that her true passions lie with the headlines and the man who has shaped her career, Sully. The two reconcile the professional with the personal in a way that preserves both the romance and the integrity of the newsroom. The film ends with a celebratory tone of resilience and renewal as Christy Colleran and John L. “Sully” Sullivan, IV set their sights on a second honeymoon in Hawaii—an invitation to slow down and savor the moment after a city-wide story that proved that the truth is the ultimate lead.