Petraues and Crocker to be interviewed by Brit Hume Monday…
FNC was advertising all morning that General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will be interviewed by Brit Hume live at 9pm ET on Monday in an exclusive. This will be following their testimony to Congress…
I would much rather seen Hannity and Colmes do this, although I can see why they wouldn’t want to get involved in that setting and field questions from Hume.
I wonder if they will be granting more interviews to other networks.
Comment by FishOil — September 9, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
News Hounds is already claiming that FNC is toning down Iraq coverage in preparation for the interview. Also, they are claiming that it will be a “comfortable” setting, which is why they are going to Fox. I would argue they are going to Fox because more people watch, and its Brit Hume.
Comment by jmkaib — September 9, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
#2 - If they were aiming for a large audience, they could have gone on network tv instead of cable, no? Surely one of the networks would have pre-empted a show at 9pm to make room for news special, especially of this importance.
Comment by FishOil — September 9, 2007 @ 5:01 pm
#3, the special could also air at a latter hour on a net, but who cares. FNC is very popular, so it gets the ratings. Also, its Brit Hume. Still, you are right. But, clearly they wish to find a more amicable audience. Admittedly, FNC is a more favorable audience to them. But, they get the Oreilly lead-in, H&C, and most likely a lot of people. If the nets were such ratings bastions, why would anyone waste their time on cable? IT WILL GET REPLAYED!!!
Comment by jmkaib — September 9, 2007 @ 7:07 pm
Also, FNC just got the highest rated debate, higher than network debates.
Comment by jmkaib — September 9, 2007 @ 7:08 pm
FNC was the only net to start a debate at 9pm. I’m sure that had NOTHING to do with the higher numbers, eh?
Comment by Terance — September 9, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
They are not going to FNC for the ratings!
Comment by RJ — September 9, 2007 @ 7:40 pm
Good point Terance. Well then, why doesn’t MSNBC or CNN have their debates at 9? I guess Dan Abrams and Larry King are just too important.
Comment by jmkaib — September 9, 2007 @ 7:51 pm
^ Well, MSNBC can’t possibly have a debate from say 9-11pm because their loyal viewers of LOCKUP will get mad. And CNN probably doesn’t want to preempt LKL.
Comment by Terance — September 9, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
Looking at it though, the ratings debate is somewhat weak since the national news programs get higher ratings than even the top cable news program. If anything, it should be interesting.
Comment by Chris (clind) — September 9, 2007 @ 8:17 pm
Terance, the only thing they’d preempt LKL for would probably be only the God’s Warriors specials.
Comment by Chris (clind) — September 9, 2007 @ 8:25 pm
“Surely one of the networks would have pre-empted a show at 9pm to make room for news special, especially of this importance.”
Do you honestly believe that? You think one of the nets would pre-empt the second week of their new prime time fall season to have important news coverage?
Sorry, that just doesn’t happen anymore. The network honchos would never allow such a thing unless it was major BREAKING news. That’s what the cable nets are for.
And before the partisan lib hacks start railing on Brit Hume for giving a softball interview, why don’t we watch the interview first and see how difficult the it is.
Based on Hume’s history of being the top political journalist in the biz, I expect a hard-hitting interview. If I’m wrong, I’ll be the first on here admitting it.
Comment by bigred — September 9, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
I agree with bigred… I just read an article saying that ABC in NYC will end their Sept. 11 coverage (specifically the part where the names of the victims are read aloud) so they can jump back to “Regis and Kelly.”
Important news doesn’t get the ratings… and therefore, doesn’t make the broadcast nets.
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 9, 2007 @ 8:57 pm
You guys are right about the networks not breaking in for news. Just for fun, when something is breaking on cable, I’ll check out the networks, and nine times out of ten they’re airing their regular programming.
People who don’t watch cable news probably don’t have a clue about half the things that are going on in the world.
Comment by Missy — September 9, 2007 @ 11:40 pm
Petraues and Crocker are going to Fox (a slightly Repub. network) instead of other networks (a la CNN and MSNBC) because well they were appointed to each of their respective positions by a Republican President…
…if they really wanted ratings they also would not go on Brit Hume…they would go on at 8ET with O’Reilly.
Comment by Aaron — September 10, 2007 @ 1:53 pm