Television networks return to old obsession with Simpson 

FILE – In this June 15, 1995 file photo, O.J. Simpson, left, grimaces as he tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered in a Los Angeles courtroom. Simpson, the former football star, TV pitchman and now Nevada prison inmate, will have a lot going for him when he appears before state parole board members Thursday, July 20, 2017, seeking his release after more than eight years for an ill-fated bid to retrieve sports memorabilia. (AP Photo/Sam Mircovich, Pool, file)

NEW YORK — Television networks returned to the scene of an old obsession Thursday with blanket coverage of O.J. Simpson’s parole hearing Nevada.

The biggest broadcast networks, news networks and even ESPN and CNBC set aside regular programming for the odd spectacle that NBC’s Savannah Guthrie dubbed “the parole hearing of the century.”

It was 22 years after Simpson’s trial for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, became a television soap opera.

Commentators harshly criticized Simpson and his lawyer for their performance at the parole hearing. CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin called it “an absolute disgrace.”