Obama Immigration Speech: CBS, Fox, NBC & ABC Not Airing

[mfcorey1]

UPDATED with ABC decision not to air speech live: President Barack Obama will finally make public tomorrow night his plan to overhaul immigration. However, while his primetime speech will postpone part of Univision’s 15th annual Latin Grammys, it will not be covered by the Big 4.

The administration said today that Obama will be speaking live from the White House at 8 PM ET on Thursday. But ABC has the fall finale for Grey’s Anatomy on at that time, while CBS has ratings powerhouse The Big Bang Theory, NBC has reality show The Biggest Loser and Fox has Bones. As of right now, none plans changes to their regularly scheduled Thursday night November sweep schedules for the approximately 15-minute speech.

Although Obama’s speech will be seen on cable news siblings Fox News and MSNBC, Fox and NBC are not carrying it live on their broadcast networks; CNN will show it live. A CBS News division spokesperson says the network will also not be showing Obama’s approximately 15-minute address on Thursday night. (UPDATE, 2:34 PM: An ABC spokesman “ABC is not carrying the president’s address on the television network — it will be carried on all our ABC News digital platforms, including Apple TV, and radio.” Which means it is still Shondaland on ABC on Thursday.)

https://tv.yahoo.com/news/obama-immigration-speech-cbs-fox-200832517.html

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. If A GOPPER Were Giving Speech There Would Be Hours Of Preview & Speech.

The real image of the media beast is now in complete view

[yeoman6987]

3. Different times. Only 3 networks back then

Networks can't afford the advertising hit it would take for the 15 minutes. Sorry that is reality. He will be on 50 channels instead of 53. He can't possibly be that selfish. In fact, he isn't. I bet he is ok with this. I heard he watches Scandal which would be interrupted in parts of the US with an 8 o'clock speech plus whatever discussions after. It would be a disasterous mess that is unnecessary with all the millions of news stations.

[Nye Bevan]

4. Not really.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x578479

[Cha]

6. Oh yeah, who cared about bush's strategy for Iraq? Certainly the bushes didn't care if it were

broadcast.

"The Bush administration has not requested the Big Four to air live the president’s address to an audience at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT on the last Monday of the May sweep, a crucial period when networks chase high ratings in order to set ad rates."

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Corporate so called News at it's best.

Just another slap in the face for our President.

[Cha]

5. "15 minutes".. 15 bloody minutes! That's corporatemediawhore America..

[nilram]

7. Clearly, the Liberal media is trying too hard to not *look* as liberal

as it clearly is.

[Jenoch]

8. I think this is a result of the formerly

big time networks admitting they are not as relevant as they used to be. The television audience is so busted up that the networks cannot afford to lose viewers on a big night.

[brush]

9. This must be a first . . .

that none of the networks won't carry a major address by a sitting president.

First black president, too.

Wonder if that has anything to to with it?

[KinMd]

10. Most anyone who wants to hear the speech will be able to..

all the cable news networks will carry it, plus radio, plus internet.

[WillowTree]

11. And it'll surely be on PBS, as well.

[flamingdem]

12. But of course, the better for the GOP to

distort his message later.

What a lot of BS by the networks!

[Journeyman]

13. Why not do it at 7:30 EST, then re-play it at that same hour in all the other time zones? . . .

What's so magical about the 8 o'clock hour? And why must it play simultaneously across the nation? It's not like it's a declaration of war, or something that would suffer from any "spoilers" that leaked before it played in the next time zone. And this way, everyone would have an opportunity to view it after dinner, before the network programs begin, and no one would be put out because of "something stupid that the President had to share" during their show.

Not everyone is interested in watching anything other than entertainment at certain times of the day. A lot of people won't watch because they'd rather read it later, when they can also peruse any reasoned analysis that had been made overnight. And some people just don't like watching speeches.