Fox Won't Bump Sweeps Programming for Prime-Time Obama
Barack Obama
Fox stands alone as the only Big 4 network that will not rejigger its May sweeps programming to accommodate President Obama's Wednesday-night news conference — his fourth prime-time appearance since taking office, and this time pegged to his 100th day as POTUS.
"The Fox Broadcasting Company will not air the Presidential News Conference on Wednesday, April 29 at 8 pm/ET," Fox says in a statement to TVGuide.com.
Fox instead will stick with its scheduled line-up of Lie to Me followed by the American Idol results show. Should anyone come to Fox looking for the commander in chief, the network says it "will be alerting viewers with an on-screen graphic at the top of the hour that the press conference is available on Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network."
Both ABC (which will sideline Scrubs and Better Off Ted until Tuesday, May 5 at 8:00/ET and 8:30, respectively) and NBC (which is chung-chucking a Law & Order repeat) thus far have committed to carrying Obama's news conference. CBS, which has fresh episodes of Rules of Engagement and Old Christine scheduled to air, has yet to confirm its plans.
