E! Examines Heroic True Stories Told by the Actual Victims When "E! Entertainment Special: I Was Held Hostage" Premieres Thursday, April 14th at 10:00PM ET/PT

Los Angeles - April 13, 2011 - What if you answer a knock at your front door and without warning, you're taken prisoner? What would you do if you showed up for work and a madman bursts in with a gun? Most of us will never experience a situation like this, but for some, these "what if" questions became a real-life nightmare. With interviews from the survivors themselves, E! goes behind the headlines to recount the heroic decisions ordinary people made that became the difference between life and death. The "E! Entertainment Special: I Was Held Hostage" premieres Thursday, April 14th at 10:00pm ET/PT.

Ashley Ware was busy planning the wedding of her dreams when she was kidnapped in the dead of night by a stranger who showed up at her front door. Staring down the barrel of a gun, Ware refused to give up and, acting on instinct , she fought back and lived to tell about her torment. E! recounts this amazing story about a young woman who took control of her own destiny, featuring in-depth interviews with Ware and behind the scenes revelations from others close to the events.

On December 14th, 2010, in Panama City, Florida, the school board convened for a regularly scheduled meeting, but the agenda quickly turned deadly when Clay Duke, an out-of-work ex-con, entered the room with a loaded gun, and a grudge. He took six hostages including Bill Husfelt, the school board superintendent. As Husfelt tried heroically to convince Duke to release the other hostages Duke started shooting. Mike Jones, a 20 - year veteran of the Panama City Police force, and a former school board member, was in the building that day. He put himself in the line of fire and helped save the lives of the board members. E! takes viewers back to the scene with first-hand accounts from Bill Husfelt, Mike Jones and other members from the school board . We also reveal shocking closed-circuit footage of the actual hostage crisis and the dramatic shoot out.

In November of 2000, three masked men burst into the home of single mother Michelle Renee who worked at a San Diego area bank. The intruders took Michelle, her 7-year old daughter Breea, and their roommate Kimbra hostage. After a night of terror, Renee's captors forced her to drive to her bank and remove hundreds of thousands of dollars from the vault -- while her daughter and roommate were still being held hostage at home. While Renee carried out the demands, she covertly gathered pertinent information that ultimately helped police arrest her tormentors.

Featuring exclusive interviews and firsthand accounts from eye witnesses, law enforcement professionals, and surviving victims, E! delves deep into these stories of abduction. Tune in as we reveal the terrifying truth behind the scary headlines when "E! Entertainment Special: I Was Held Hostage" premieres Thursday, April 14th at 10:00pm ET/PT.

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E! is television's top destination for all things entertainment and celebrity. E! is currently available to 97 million cable and satellite subscribers in the U.S. and the E! Everywhere initiative underscores the company's dedication to making E! content available on all new media platforms any time and anywhere from online to broadband video to wireless to radio to VOD. Popular programming includes E! core franchises, "E! News," "The Soup," "Chelsea Lately" and "Fashion Police" as well as the network's hit series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," "Kourtney and Khlo� Take Miami, "Kourtney and Kim Take New York," "Kendra" and "Holly's World." Additionally, E!'s "Live from the Red Carpet" signature events keep fans connected to their favorite stars on Hollywood's biggest nights. E! is a network of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.