The production was a major hit, attracting 28 million viewers and receiving positive reviews from critics.

J. Bruce Ismay, president and managing director of the White Star Line, boasts of plans for a speed run tomorrow morning.

Smith orders the lifeboats readied and the passengers mustered and no general alarm to be sounded so as to avoid panic.

Titanic's distress message is picked up on the roof of a New York Department store by radio operator David Sarnoff.

Claude Rains, who narrated throughout the telecast, intones, "At the time President Ismay left his ship, there remained on board 1,643 passengers, among them 168 women and 57 children".

A small group of women and children had been allowed to evacuate earlier, the remaining steerage passengers were finally permitted to head to the deck shortly before 2 a.m.

At 2:15 a.m., the orchestra, directed by Wallace Henry Hartley, plays its final piece, the Episcopal hymn "Autumn".

Andrews, making no attempt to escape, is killed by a falling chandelier as the ship sinks at 2:20 a.m. with 1,502 souls, including many children from steerage.

Rains closes his narration by reviewing the iceberg warnings that were not heeded, the lack of sufficient lifeboats, and the failure of the Californian to respond to the Titanic's pleas.

[1] Individual credits identifying the parts played were not provided either on screen or in advance press releases.

On March 28, 1956, the production was broadcast nationwide on NBC as part of the long-running anthology series, Kraft Television Theatre.

[7] The program was nominated in five categories at the 9th Primetime Emmy Awards: best single program of the year; best teleplay writing (George Roy Hill and John Whedon); best direction (George Roy Hill); best live camera work; and best art direction (Duane McKinney).

In The New York Times, Jack Gould called it "technically brilliant", "a triumph", and "an extraordinary demonstration of staging technique that imparted a magnificent sense of physical dimension to the home screen."

In addition to the "sheer magnitude and complexity" of the production, Gould also praised the "emotional tension and terrifying suspense" that were well sustained through the broadcast.

[3] In The Boston Globe, Mary Cremmen called it "bitterly graphic" with an impact that "made a viewer wide-eyed with fear."

She praised the production's pacing and its restraint in relying on suspense rather than the "screams and gushing water and crashing chandeliers" that characterized prior dramatizations of the Titanic's sinking.

[11] Syndicated television critic John Crosby called it a "splendid" production and "an undertaking of great courage".

As a fan of live television, Crosby called it "a particularly happy event" in demonstrating the medium's capabilities.

[1] In the New York Daily News, Ben Gross called it "a moving drama of courage and cowardice", "a TV show to remember", and one of the rare occasions when television departed from the road of mediocrity and proved that "TV occasionally can rise to great heights".