Just watched this on DVD...good premise with ?s (spoilers)

This was a pretty good movie and I watched it on the DVD release. I was wondering if the whole thing was planned by the "Pia Postman Show" to gain more ratings? I wondered because Pia looked a little bit too cool later on the show and was giving signals up to the booth.
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Spoilers Warning
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The bomb was found to be a "dud" when they went to defuse it but if you are going to build a bomb and have the knowledge I think it should be made to go off at least with some firepower. At the end, it was unclear if Frank was shot and killed by a sniper SWAT memeber, himself or someone else? I thought the cop Clay that came in and ran to save him took the hit. The funniest part was how they showed that the "Pia Postman Show" was going to keep on the air the next day with its "normal" programming.