TV Networks Bravely Fight For The Right To Think You Can Dance
As the US plod through The Summer Americans Stopped Watching Network TV, said networks are making a fuss about Barack Obama’s insistence on holding press conferences because it temporarily prevents them from profiting from their endlessly looped last-gasp humiliation-based reality shows.
There has long been tension between the White House and the networks, who don’t like having their excruciatingly calibrated schedules torn up by politicians for political purposes. So when Obama scheduled a press conference to discuss his health care proposals for 9 p.m. tomorrow night, which would seriously screw up the networks’ plans, the networks led by last-place NBC balked, obliging Obama to move it to 8 o’clock. And Fox, like they did for Obama’s last primetime presser, just told the White House to fuck off, but that’s a different story.
In any case, in describing the programming scramble caused by the press conference, The Hollywood Reporter pretty much sums up why no one watches broadcast TV any more:
The stakes were particularly high for NBC, which airs the most-watched show of the summer, “America’s Got Talent,” at 9 p.m. This week, the reality hit includes a heavily promoted interview with “Britain’s Got Talent” singing sensation Susan Boyle…. ABC News often has the highest-rated coverage of Obama’s primetime events and ABC was leaning toward carrying the conference all day. In one respect, the shift to 8 p.m. could make their night more tricky. ABC’s highest-rated reality show, “Wipeout,” will be pushed to 9 p.m. to face “America’s Got Talent” along with “So You Think You Can Dance,” with “I Survived a Japanese Game Show” moved to 10 p.m. The ABC News special “Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil,” originally slated for 10 p.m. Wednesday, will air Friday as a special edition of “20/20.”
Fox airs its top-rated two-hour “So You Think You Can Dance” on Wednesday nights and will direct viewers to Fox News for the news conference.
That’s right, television executives were willing to face down the White House over Susan Boyle and retreads of Japanese game shows where people bathe in squids and razor blades. The last time this happened, when George W. Bush scheduled a presser on the first day of May sweeps in 2005, they forced him to change the start time over CSI, Will & Grace, and The O.C. That’s how far they’ve fallen. In their defence, summer has become the traditional time for vile reality TV on American networks. But the fact that NBC essentially told Barack Obama, “We are not going to take your press conference at 9 p.m. because we have to air a deranged foreign lady and amateur vocalist” is a good measure of just how desperate they are.
The solution of course, is to just break up the press conferences with ad slots. It’s an engaged, Tivo-proof audience, and there are dozens of brands out there that would love to be associated with Obama. Back in February, his 8 p.m. presser netted NBC 9.75 million viewers—2 million more than stuck around for Heroes an hour later.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I loves me some SYTYCD. Best show of the summer.
pmarble
When Presidents Talk
NorthernLite
My friend thought I meant Fox News when I first said Fox was refusing to postpone SYTYCD for Obama's presser. He tried to think what Fox News show could acronym to SYTYCD....
"Shut Your Trap You Cranky Democrat?"
anibundel
Ellen DeGeneres is a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance this week. This will be a showdown to remember!
@lobstr: I posted the exact same thoughts last time this came up - just revolve the network who shows it. But the White House wants a captive audience.
The real issue is not "DWTS" or a show versus the President. The issue is that the networks' advertising is down sharply (30%+) this year. A 30-second ad is $400K to a network. An hour of programming has, say, 15 minutes of commercials.
So every hour the President speaks costs $12 mil to a struggling network. Times 3 networks. Times the 3 pre-emptions he's done so far. And it's not like radio (or Internet sites) are required to do this.
"led by last place NBC..."
I don't know, I just enjoy every reference to NBC's rating demise after all those years when no one could come up with any decent small talk that didn't involve the latest episode of Friends.
How do the networks know he's not announcing a bailout for them? I wouldn't mind if the gov't went in an reorged all this reality tv crap.
@hilikusopus:
Autoworkers Compete to Keep Jobs, Livelihoods on New Reality Show
i think the real takeaway here is this: americans would rather watch themselves humiliate one another than be able to go to the doctor or buy medicine.
sounds about right to me.
maddoxhair
Thank God Dating in the Dark is not affected.
Yeah, I watched it - it was better than PBS' stupid History Detectives where they show people using Wikipedia....
@DahlELama: I was thinking "Healthcare Deal or No Deal," or "So You Think You Can Afford Insurance?", with Obama hosting.
In a case like this, where the struggle and annoyance of the networks is being publicized, why can't it just be made known "ok, ABC will be carrying the President", and NBC and CBS can yell "suckaz!" and carry their own stupid bullshit ad-riddled programming? We only need one fucking network to show something, and in this particular situation, everyone's going to know where to tune if they want to see it.
I always thought it was stupid that all three networks carry the same speech, but as a child I will admit it was fun to quickly flip back and forth and giggle at the delay between the three..
Autoworkers Compete to Keep Jobs, Livelihoods on New Reality Show
Remember when summer TV was nothing but original episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210? Um, not that I noticed. (Siiiigh, Andrea!)
I'm surprised the network execs didn't demand that he eat a cockroach on live teevee in exchange for them airing his press conference.
SanFranLefty
This could all be easily solved with a little program I like to call "So Obama Thinks He Can Dance."
DahlELama
Obama just needs to make his press conference more shocking and reality-based. "Tomorrow night, on a very special Barack Obama Press Conference..."
goetz