Upon further review, Obama plays ball with NBC/Boyle
07/21/09 05:42 PM
By ED BARK
NBC balked before the Obama administration blinked.
The Peacock initially planned to take a pass on the president's fourth prime-time press conference, initially scheduled at 8 p.m. (central) on Wednesday, July 22nd. After all, it had a bigger fish in play -- a new episode of summer's top-rated show, America's Got Talent, featuring excerpts from Meredith Vieira's exclusive one-on-one with Britain's Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle.
Absent NBC and Fox -- which again will be demurring in favor of So You Think You Can Dance -- the president was faced with getting just half a loaf from the Big Four broadcast networks. Going against Boyle likely would be a no-win, too.
So the president's representatives asked whether NBC would agree to air Obama's Q&A if it were moved up an hour to 7 p.m. (central), home of weekly repeats of America's Got Talent. The Peacock relented, and officially updated its prime-time schedule early Tuesday evening. ABC and CBS, which previously had agreed to carry Obama at the later hour, have rebooted and also are on board.
It's perhaps a stretch to say that Obama fatigue already is setting in just six months into his administration. But he does seem to be overexposed of late in the interests of championing the administration's sweeping health care reform package. Jim Lehrer had him on Monday's edition of PBS' NewsHour, Vieira interviewed him on Tuesday's Today program and Katie Couric sat down with the president on Tuesday's CBS Evening News.
We'll see how he fares Wednesday night in prime-time after things at first threatened to Boyle over.
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