… on a side note, right after Star Wars they showed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The print they used seemed to be unique to TCM. It wasn’t blue like the original blu-ray. And it wasn’t bland/dark like the later Director’s Cut blu-ray. It was quite nicely color balanced (leaning more to a warm earthy amber color) … they must’ve had that archived from way back somewhere. But at least CNN used some original Star Wars clips for their broadcast, which was super cool.
I was also noticing this as I watched the first few minutes the other night. I happened to find a screenshot comparison and there was in fact another hdtv broadcast that predates the 2009 blu-ray, with a red push and warm earthy colors, so that must’ve been what they were showing.