9/3 Update: When I wrote this on Wednesday I was certain Fox would decline to broadcast the address, but today Fox sent out a press release on the SYTYCD premiere, but *nothing* on the Glee premiere. When I asked our friends at Fox to clarify, I heard nothing back. I am betting now they will carry the address, and push the Glee premiere back.
President Obama is now scheduled to address a joint session of Congress during prime-time on September 9. Exactly when hasn’t been set, but it’s likely to be 9pm Eastern (although the last Obama prime-time address/press conference was quickly rescheduled from 9pm to 8pm after some of the broadcasters balked, and Fox Broadcasting didn’t carry the address, but Fox News did).
But the fall premieres of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and Glee are both currently scheduled for September 9. Whether the address is at 8pm or 9pm, it completely screws up Fox’s night since those shows are scheduled for synergy.
For that reason, and the fact that Fox Broadcasting declined to carry the last address, I’d expect them to decline this time as well. The CW has the season premiere of America’s Next Top Model, but they never carry news conferences, so they will benefit regardless.
Since the address will likely happen at 9pm, I’d expect Glee, and to a lesser extent America’s Next Top Model to benefit in the ratings. Primarily because if NBC carries the address (which I’d expect them to), they’ll have to move the 9pm results episode of America’s Got Talent to either 8pm or 10pm, getting it out of Glee’s way. (if the address is at 8pm, So You Think You Can Dance will be the beneficiary, but much less so, since it would only have faced a repeat AGT). America’s Next Top Model is going to face the new AGT for an hour either way, so its boost would likely be much less.
FOX will surely not air Obama’s press conference besides that they will lose a lot of money by pre-empting So You Think You Can Dance and Glee this is definitely a good opportunity for ratings gain for the shows especially with the massive publicity campaign FOX had for GLEE they will never preempt that show
you live on a different planet
since most networks multicast can’t they just put it on one of their useless digital subchannels, that way everyone wins, i seriously don’t get why they don’t do that
I honestly don’t think NBC is going to air this address this time around – NBC will finally put their foot down and shift coverage to MSNBC (where it belongs). Sept 9th is the start of the fall season, and I don’t think NBC will want to mess with that in ANY way, coming off a horrendous half-decade of declines.
i hope everything FOX flops. i hate them. they let go of the most entertaining girl (you know who i mean) on TV and i will never forgive them. (unless they bring her back for live shows- then i will quickly forgive them lol)
Please let FOX succeed.
Probably only CBS will do it. They have all repeats on Wednesdays so it wont hurt them. ABC has all new programming on Wednesday and I doubt they want to mess that up and air it another time.
@hmm:you wrote
“they let go of the most entertaining girl”
I’m sorry, who is she?
The President addressing a joint session of Congress is VERY DIFFERENT than a news conference at the White House with the press corps. Expect all 4 networks, including FOX, to carry it live…….season premieres of a little dance show and “Glee” be damned. Only CW will have regular programming.
If FOX doesnt air it they would be doing the smart thing since it will be on 3 other networks plus FOX News, CNN, MSNBC.
The joint session is just another speech to plead with Americans to get on board with his healthcare plan. Hasnt he realized the more he tries to push his healthcare agenda by staging these prime time events the lower his poll numbers go? He could have learned this would happen from the 1993 Hillary Care fiasco. Why couldnt our first black President have been a moderate like Colin Powell? What a wasted moment in history.
Why not put these political speeches and sales pitches on at 7pm? Why keep screwing with the prime time schedule?
I’ll be watching “Glee”, gleefully.
I know I will be watching Glee, no matter what!
ill be reading at that time.
I hope none of the major networks air it, though I expect at least two will. Regardless, I won’t watch it. I’ll watch something else. Probably Dance and Glee. Fox won’t want to push them at this late date, and shouldn’t have to.
I’m sure FOX won’t air the presser, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fauxnews, and PBS will air it though.
Why are the comments closed in today’s ratings section?
Anon, random checkbox error. Now fixed.
I assume hmm is talking about Summer Glau, but she’s going to be on Dollhouse next season. Or maybe she/he means Paula Abdul?
The truth is President Obama is being extremely short sighted with all these speeches because eventually the networks will be forced to stop carrying them. Then he’ll have deprived himeself of a very valuable communication channel.
I mean, this is (I believe) his 5th televised speech since taking office about 230 days ago. That’s one every 6 weeks and almost all of them have been during the main season and during primetime.
Given networks make (very roughly) about $3.5 million dollars per night of primetime these speeches really start to add up.
That’s a good point Tom, I will say that I find it refreshing to have a President that actually wants to talk to the American People about the issues facing the country. If there was another way to reach millions of Americans without interrupting Network programming I would be all for it. But in the mean time I don’t mind the occasional interruption when the leader of our country wants to tell us what he’s planning for the future that affects all of us. I’m not concerned with the financial impact this has on the broadcast networks. They were designed with the intention of getting information to the masses, with a secondary focus on Entertainment.
Yeah, sounds like Paula Abdul, Master Moron. “Live shows” meaning she’s not in the auditions. Someone doesn’t seem to understand that it was more like Abdul left than Fox got rid of her.
I’ll watch Obama.
Will be 1000x more entertaining, educational, worthwhile, etc, than any american dance program or american singing drama…
Glee should be on CW, airing right between 90210 and Melrose Place.
We will be watching Glee as well. If I want to be lied to and hear a bunch of expensive but empty promises, I will go used car shop. It has got old having that guy on at prime time every month.
Gawd, it is going to be a ling four years.
long four years as well. :-]
If there was going to be actual something new talked about by Obama, maybe … maybe the speech would be worth it. But there won’t be anything new. Obama is trying to sell the same old thing. This is just a tired old sales pitch speech. Nothing more.
can you close the thread now since people are now getting off topic…some people just can’t respect this site
Obviously josh is an angry Obama supporter. Glee just looks and sounds stupid, so I’ll just watch something On Demand.
You people really love talking about politics.
Personally I loved Glee the first time it was shown and look forward to watching it any time they want to put it on. While I find it nice that Obama would like to talk to us about things that are going on I do think Fox is doing the right thing by allowing Fox News to cover the conference for those who want to watch it. And keeping regular programming on their network meaning anyone who is not really into watching the presser will probably end up on Fox since it will be the only network carrying regular programming plus those who want to watch those shows anyway good move on Foxs part if they do this.
I dont understand why nbc doesnt continue regular programming. You can only watch 1 channel at once
there are THREE 24 hour news channels that will cover it.
Doesnt seem like a smart business decision for fox and nbc to cover it
I’ll be watching Glee!
MSNBC, FOXNEWS, and CNN aren’t free over the air channels to cable-less individuals.
CSPAN may be? i duno.
I’ll be watching paint dry!
I…. personally… will be watching grass grow.
ha, too hot to paint.
@eric – PBS is a free over the air channel that covers pretty much every presidential speech. It is, after all, the PUBLIC broadcasting service. I don’t see why we can’t leave the for profit networks to make a profit while allowing the TV station which gets 40-50% of their revenue from tax dollars to broadcast anything the President has to say.
@fred fox probably wont cover it which will be a good bussiness decision as they would benefit from the other networks airing the speech
Top model will get over 4 million, maybe 5, who knows? Glee, not too sure, cuz I haven’t seen the pilot & don’t really intend to (High School Musical Wannabe). I think the CW will see gains on Wednesday night.
Speaking of Wednesday Night, I hope people don’t watch Modern Family- I saw an awful promo with a smack between the two guys…
I think Modern Family looks hilarious Shem. And I’m against gay marriage. Let your politics go and just enjoy the show…jeesh.
Anyways: FOX and CW won’t air it. NBC, ABC, and CBS probably will.
since we don’t care…lets start with the advisor for President Obama says white people kill black people on purpose…this guy has the ear to the President…9/11 was an inside job…yes i’m a Obama supporter…lets not forget now we’re going after legal CIA agents…who is in charge the President or the AG…if he cared about what he said then he should fire the AG…this is why i wanted this thread closed..since i was attacked i’m attacking back with facts…
josh, you can close the comments any time you choose to. Simply don’t click aon the article.
I thought that you people usually close political discussion topics comments on this, because of past fights. This one is the first story on the front page and has been all day, so I’m guessing that it’s for traffic and to hopefully spark a huge argument and then you’ll close the comments. Hell, we can’t even comment on cable news ratings reports. But this?
I think the President should prepare his speech so that at a certain time the networks that ARE carring him can exit to their commercials and then return back to the President. If this was done the often larger audience he draws would then benefit those networks that carry his speech. The public actually are the owners of the over the air frequencies that broadcasters use, but networks should not have to absorb the losses in advertiseing income.
Then if FOX has a smaller audience than other networks they would be the loser, like it is now they will likely gain by not airing the POTUS.
actually David, you can comment on the cable news ratings now.
Prepare for the debut of “Glee” to be delayed a week. FOX will carry the joint address to Congress. I can’t remember a single instance in which a major network, which FOX now is, did not carry a President’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress.
i hope it gets pushed back b/c i am away that night. but i don’t want this scheduling conflict to mess with its synergy with SYTYCD
It is incredibly sad when people will choose entertainment over the future of the nation. Those who bash the current president didn’t vote for him to begin with. Regardless of politics the future of this country is cloudy. Regardless of the president our body politic is rotten to the core. Obama is more moderate than the media will report. He is personally dedicated to health care and thus why passing something to help the progress along is better than nothing. Get your heads out of the red vs blue mentality. We are not liberals or conservatives but Americans. Enjoy your GLEE and Think you can Dance. When the nation falls within the next 30 years due to the laziness of the American people and the hatred of our politics you can stare at squirrels like the rest of us.
Adam has some good points. If it was a press conference in the East Room, I could see some broadcast networks not airing it (and Fox didn’t the last time.) But joint sessions of Congress (essentially the format used in the State of the Union addresses) are “special TV events,” and I think it is to the benefit of the populus that all broadcast networks air this.
I don’t watch Dance or Glee anyways.
Go Glee!!!
Julia says:
“Yeah, sounds like Paula Abdul, Master Moron. ‘Live shows’ meaning she’s not in the auditions.”
I was hoping it was a long-standing grudge over Tracey Ullman.
You think were lazy have you not seen the town halls the people are in revoult because of the socialism that keeps plaguing this country I will not watch because frankly I don’t like to ne lied to. Obama is a left wing radical who wants to socialize this country
This is every month with Obama making speeches. Its ridiculous that 10 channels have to air it. I hope that when all the fall shows get started that the networks decline showing Obamas speeches. Its just soo annoying and people dont wanna watch it!
wont these networks learn we dont need to see this guy on tv every month and that we wanna see our shows!!
Cody, you are a retard, are you kidding me??
Is President Obama the man that we want to be talking to our grade school children? What is he going to say? With the associaltion of Bill Ayers, Jerimiah Wright, Van Jones, and the organization called Acorn, to name a few I am concerned about what is in this man’s head and what does he want to plant in our children’s head?
Valerie Jarret, White House Senior Advisor said about the new Green Jobs Czar and self avowed communist, said; “We have been watching this man for years and are excited about his ideas!” Excited about the ideas of a communist, racist, Black Nationalist, and supporter of Mumia Abu-Jones, a cop killer on death row?
Before I let my grandchildren hear what President Obama has to say I’d like to know about what is he going to say?
On another thought. Last night I tuned in to see what was newsworthy on CNN. Did anybody give a moment of thought to what they might do if the Jackson family came late to the funeral? A’la 2 hours late? It was embarrassing to see the incesant tap dance by Anderson Cooper and his guests. Score one more for Fox News.
That, George, is why you watch with them and talk about the politics and other issues. Better to make sure kids understand what your views are, and possibly even what others views are, so they can make an informed choice. My kids are watching with me at least until it’s time for bed….all 4 of them have school in the morning and getting enough sleep is more important than a speech that can be seen on the weekend via Tivo.