http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

Skeds get Bush-whacked
Prez's Katrina speech throws skeds off

President Bush is making life difficult for the networks again, with a last-minute primetime speech playing havoc with schedules.
White House announced Tuesday that Bush plans to address the nation Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT. Speech about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is expected to run between 30 and 45 minutes.

News proved to be an immediate headache for Fox, which had planned to air the second episode of new sudser "Reunion" in that Thursday timeslot. That airing has now been preempted, pushing the second seg of "Reunion" to Sep. 22 -- directly opposite the season premieres of "CSI" and "The Apprentice."

Fox wanted to get two episodes of "Reunion" sampled by viewers before the other nets' big guns returned, and air a total of four segs before baseball preemptions. Now only three segs will air before the skein takes a break for baseball.

Over at CBS, Bush's speech has set up a series of sked shifts that will result in the planned Sept. 21 season premiere of "CSI: NY" being bumped back a week.

Eye had planned to repeat the Quentin Tarantino-helmed two-hour season finale of "CSI" this Thursday, from 9-11 p.m. -- using the event to tubthump Friday's premiere of "Threshold." Because of the Bush speech, Eye will run two individual repeats of "CSI" immediately after the speech finishes (or one "CSI" if the speech runs very long).

CBS isn't giving up on repeating the "CSI" season finale, however. It will now air Sept. 21 from 9-11 p.m., opposite the premieres of "Lost" and "Invasion" -- and a night before the season premiere of "CSI." As for "CSI: NY," it's now set to return Sept. 28.

ABC plans to devote all of its Thursday lineup to news coverage of Katrina's aftermath.

just so long as he doesn't preempt football, it's all good with me

What an asshole. First he causes a hurricane and now this!

das

Sounds like Bush hates Reunion. (Just like everybody else).

I missed Martha this morning due to his address to the UN, too!

Oh, well, at least I got to see Poncho Day yesterday with her guest David Spade. She made recipes she learned in prison. (I kid you not.)

geez, maybe I should have put the thread title as something like "Pres. Bush plans a speech for this Thursday which will cause all the shitty programs to be bumped for a week causing no concern for anyone because no one gives a crap" or something like that.

George Bush doesn't care about white people.

...wonder if he'll accept responsibility for this...

Why doesn't he just hold these things at 7:30/6:30c when all that is airing are syndicated shows like sitcom reruns, game shows, and entertainment news/celebrity gossip?

Because it's a live national address. At 7:30 PM on the East coast, folks are still at work out west. Plus, y'know, the goal is to reach the biggest audience possible.

Can't he just put it in a blog or a podcast or something?

They should use PBS for this sh*t. After all they are getting tax $$$ support from the gov.

These networks have to show his speech?

So they air it at 9 PM Eastern when all the west coasters are still in traffic coming home?

Well, it's kinda the reason they exist, after all.

If it's going to air live nationally, 9 PM Eastern is the best compromise.

I don't want to sound like I'm in favor of this kind of thing, though. It's one thing if the speech has some bearing or meaning, but if it's just political scuttling...bah.

<-- hits TiVo button
--- picks something to watch from Now Playing list
--- spends no time worrying about the To Do list updating itself tomorrow

Honestly, I don't see why the White House doesn't make a blog of things like this, State of the Union, etc, in addition to televising it, or whatever.
I'm sure there's an audience for things like this.

well, i was planning on using my recorder to record the tarantino episode of csi, as it doesn't look like they will release the episode individually on dvd like in other regions, so that might be a problem since the lost premiere is that night.

He should be restricted to PBS and thats that.

One thing that surprises me is that why didn't Fox consider using the FX cable network to show the first four Reunion episodes?

I think we're very fortunate that President Bush's speech occurred this week, since the real start of the new TV season doesn't begin until this Sunday. Remember that fiasco with President Bush's prime time news conference on April 28, 2005 that totally fouled up the May 2005 sweeps period? The one that forced Fox to double-up episodes of The O.C. and NBC to double-up episodes of Joey so both shows could meet the original season finale date?

Because FX airs good shows?

the only real reason he is doing this, is hes trying to repair his image. poll numbers way down, gas high, goverment response to hurricane etc.

As long as this dosn't screw-up The OC i'll be fine...Dont FUCK with The OC Bush!

God damn. I thought this would be fine for us west coast viewers but guess not. THe only premier this effects is CSI: NY, though? Odd since it isn't even on Thursdays. Is Survivor's premier supposed to be 2 hours?