Obama Taking Over Monday Prime-Time In February

I've always believed that Obama loves the sound of his voice. Most narcissists do, like Chavez and Fidel. Hugo Chavez has long, boring chats on TV. So did Fidel Castro. And it seems Obama is about to join their ranks, not with 11 hour broadcasts, like Chavez, but with 3 prime-time Monday broadcasts in 3 weeks! 3-plus hours of Obama in 3 weeks will be pure torture. Frankly, his studied, precise speech is incredibly grating, and the prospect of 3 uninterrupted hours of speechifying is not appealing in any way. And I'm not the only one bothered by all this. The networks are balking, but not for the same reasons. Apparently, Obama's hours in the spotlight are going to cost millions of dollars for the networks; after all, putting him on the air means something has to be preempted, and preemption means major losses in ad revenue.

Network execs are also pissed that he chose Monday night, one of the most competitive, popular TV nights of the week, this season:

"Notice they're not going on Friday or Saturday," one network exec complained. "They're . . . preempting our better shows. You're not happy to lose a 'House' if you are Fox, or two of the better comedies at CBS, or 'The Bachelor' at ABC -- we're all going to take a bath."


I know I'm pissed because if he happens to go over schedule, it's going to mess with 2 shows that I love to watch on Monday night. Thankfully, his 2 hour speech to the congress is February 24, a Tuesday!

One exec stated: "His economic stimulus package apparently does not extend to the TV networks."

Guess not.

Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers