The back story of the prez 'news conference' last night>
President Bush addressed the nation on Thursday night, yet only after some hesitation and negotiation did the major television networks agree to pay the postage and deliver it.
Had a compromise not been reached late in the day, ABC would have been the only major broadcast network to carry the event live.
It wasn't just that ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC were caught off-guard by Wednesday evening's announcement that Bush planned to stage his first prime-time news conference in more than a year and only the fourth of his presidency.
And it wasn't just that the White House chose a Thursday, a big revenue night for the networks they're loath to surrender. After all, it's not as though the president would include a product plug in midspeech, a la Donald Trump or Jeff Probst.
The dilemma for the networks was that this particular Thursday was the first night of this year's May ratings period, when local viewership is measured in markets around the country to set ad rates and broadcasters work extra hard to keep viewers spellbound.
With "Survivor: Palau," "The O.C." and other high-rated Thursday staples affected by the president's pre-emption, that upped the ante and quite nearly turned his Q-and-A session into Must See on Cable TV.
Back when there were only three networks and cable wasn't a factor, things tended to go smoother when the White House asked for TV time. But not only is there now greater competition among broadcasters big and small, it can be argued that there are plenty of other outlets where an interested citizen can see or hear a news event live even if ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC choose not to air it.
CBS and Fox said they planned to skip Thursday's news conference. NBC, though it didn't issue a statement, planned to deploy anchor Brian Williams for coverage on MSNBC.
The 7:30 p.m. start the White House originally planned would have wreaked havoc on their schedules. And if Social Security is the third rail of American politics, Thursday hits such as "Survivor," "The O.C.," "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "ER" and "The Apprentice" are practically the third rail of American TV.
Not until the White House agreed to move the start to 7 p.m. did NBC reverse itself. CBS and Fox eventually chose to follow suit rather than appear to diss the president.
ABC, meanwhile, had to be thrilled. With only Reese Witherspoon's movie "Sweet Home Alabama" on tap, the president and the press corps looked like its best Thursday drama in ages.
Considerably less enthusiastic was CBS, which is counting on its Thursday juggernaut of "Survivor," "CSI" and "Without a Trace" to help it outpace Fox in the ratings chase. The first two shows got pushed back and the network held on to its fresh episode of "Trace" for later during the sweeps.
NBC had to pull episodes of "Joey" and "Will & Grace" but was able to run "The Apprentice" and "ER" in their entirety. Fox looked to take its unaired episode of "The O.C." and present it back-to-back with another new episode next Thursday.
The White House had to know going in that the networks might balk this time of year. On May 24 last year, near the end of the ratings period, NBC opted to run episodes of "Fear Factor," CBS aired season finales of its Monday comedies and ABC presented the film "A Beautiful Mind." A speech by President Bush was seen only on cable.
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