Feb. 19, 2012: Whitney Houston, You Were Loved

Any time multiple television networks simultaneously cancel their regularly scheduled programming for the sake of covering a single event, our top story becomes clear. On Feb. 11, singer Whitney Houston, who in 2009 was named the most-awarded female act of all time, was found dead in her suite in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles as she was preparing to attend a pre-Grammy Awards party. Whitney Houston, “The Voice,” will be buried next to her father this evening. Yesterday her family, friends, and fans gathered for a “Home Going Service” at which a number of fellow stars spoke and sang in Houston’s honor. (One fellow celebrity, ex-husband Bobbi Brown, left the service shortly after it began because of a conflict with security personnel.) The reasons for the 48-year-old’s death remain unclear, although that hasn’t stopped commentators from speculating that her cause of death might have been something less than natural. In any case, we can expect extensive coverage of Whitney Houston’s life, death, memorial service, and funeral for some time to come.