Networks Becoming Increasingly Irritated By Monster They've Created

I can empathize with Fox, as they're the only ones who didn't slavishly fawn over this guy for the past two years. That and their blockbuster primetime show is going to get bumped so this megalomaniac can preen for the cameras and read off his TelePrompter. Though as we said yesterday, it's not as if he's suffering for facetime.

As for the rest of them, they can suffer. You created this, now he's your problem.

Networks are pulling their shows over to the side of the road to make room for the lights and sirens of president Barack Obama's latest primetime address.

Obama will take to the air next Tuesday evening on four broadcast networks and bump the most popular series on television, Fox's "American Idol."

Fulfilling their scheduling civic duty is starting to seem increasingly cumbersome to broadcasters, however. Between a struggling economy and ratings sagging in midseason, every interruption costs networks advertising dollars and momentum.

Considering they began ignoring Bush's speeches and running their own programming instead, why not tell Obama to sod off? The people who really want to listen to his drivel, and those numbers are decreasing by the day, might be bright enough to find him somewhere.

"At a time when we're struggling not only financially but to build audiences, this doesn't help on either front," one network executive said. "These repeated interruptions -- and the rumor of even more to come -- really make it difficult to build audience flow and loyalty. We will all lose one or two million dollars for this."

Oh well.