Mar

26

The NFL and the Presidential Election Collide

March 26, 2008 | by Keith | Categories Television |

Here is a report from Reuters about plans by the NFL and NBC to shift the starting time of the 2008 season opener to accommodate NBC News’ plan to cover the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Since 2002 the NFL has opened the season on the Thursday night following Labor Day.  This year that coincides with the final day of the convention when presumptive nominee John McCain is slated to deliver his acceptance speech.

According to the article, the NFL may shift the kick-off of the opener to 7pm ET with NBC’s hope that the game concludes by the 10pm ET speech.

The article calls into concern potential lower ratings numbers because of the earlier start.  Ratings have been flat anyway and I doubt they will be impacted.  It’s the NFL!

The only question I have is whether the Republican National Committee will postpone the speech to await the NBC audience in the event the game goes into overtime or the runs past 10pm ET.   I hope it doesn’t.  As much as I love sports, the future of our country is more important.  I would force NBC to make a decision as to whether to will break away from the game to cover the speech.   The right call would be to cover the speech.  But I don’t know if NBC has the stomach to leave NFL fans in the lurch.   I’m sure this issue will come into clearer focus as the summer progresses.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Christopher Byrne on March 26, 2008 9:30 am

    I heard this on the radio this morning and thought “this is crazy”. Every network will be covering the speech, so why not keep kick-off where it is supposed to be. NBC will probably get better ratings because I doubt McCain (or any other candidate) will be saying anything we have not heard already, ad nauseum.

    The reality is that moving the game earlier means that people watching will just turn their TVs off earlier. Why? Because they were never going to watch the speech anyway.

    Or NBC could just move the game to MSNBC or CNBC…

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