Nothing can make up for the loss of Oscar's red-carpet coverage, but ABC is giving some nominees a do-over, as the network scrambles to patch holes, provide adequate war coverage and promote their ailing programs.

The Alphabet net has rescheduled the Barbara Walters Special, originally slated to air last Sunday prior to the Academy Awards ceremony. Walters' traditional Oscar show airs this Tuesday at 10 p.m. (with some minor revisions).

"She's tweaked it to reflect that it's a week later," said Walters' rep Cindi Berger.

ABC made the decision to pull the celebrity fawn-fest last Wednesday, which was fine with the celebrity journo, who released a statement that read, "With such serious issues facing the nation, it was the right decision to postpone the special."

However, what Babs can't change is the content of the hour-long gabfest, as Oscar hopefuls Ren?e Zellweger, Julianne Moore and Nicolas Cage blather on about their chances of winning--blissfully ignorant that not one of them will go home with a gold statuette that evening. (Isn't there something in the Geneva Convention about humiliating celebs on TV?)

Even as viewers ignored the Hollywood shindig in record numbers last weekend, the results of the kudocast have been widely reported: The Hours' Nicole Kidman beat Zellweger in the Best Actress race, The Pianist newcomer Adrien Brody usurped Cage (and favored nominee Jack Nicholson) for Best Actor, and Moore failed to win for either Supporting or Best Actress (following in the cursed footsteps of fellow double nominee Sigourney Weaver in 1988).

At least Babs and the disappointed nominees get another chance to shine. Network programming execs have asked producers of other ABC series to turn in truncated versions of their shows to allow for hourly newsbreaks. The programmers have also yanked several faltering shows from the lineup, claiming they were getting lost in the shuffle.

Producers have been asked to provide alternate cuts of all their series airing on ABC with at least two-and-a-half minutes less footage per hour, so the network can run regular newsbreaks without worrying about interrupting shows in progress or losing costly ad time.

The news department will also boost its war coverage with an hour's worth of updates every Monday night, at 8 p.m.

Gone for now are The Family, Tales from the Front Line and Veritas, while, mercifully, the series finale of Are You Hot? has been postponed for two weeks, pushing a six-episode run of Extreme Makeover back a week to April 10.

After a promising start three weeks ago, the money-grubbing Family members were displaced by current events. Rather than risk doling out $1 million without anyone watching, ABC will relaunch the dysfunctional Family series this summer, a move that worked relatively well last year with the second season of The Mole. War coverage will fill The Family's Tuesday night time slot, until NYPD Blue is back on the beat next month.

Ultimately, Lorenzo Lamas and his annoying laser will be back for a two-hour Hot wrap-up on April 5, and nine original episodes of Veritas will air sometime later this year. The future of Front Line is unclear.

One series not affected by scheduling changes is the third installment of ABC's bona fide hit The Bachelor, which bows Wednesday night. "It's one of the few shows still airing on time," said ABC spokeswoman Alison Rou, adding a cautionary warning, "Unless it gets preempted because of war coverage, otherwise it's airing as scheduled."

Shooting wrapped last month on the reality series starring extremely eligible tire scion Andrew Firestone and, as such, won't have Firestone and his dates spending their get-to-know-you time together squatting on the couch watching war coverage.