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How will TV handle the conventions?

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NBC is advertising the best coverage of the convention. I have no idea what they think that means. Live coverage is no big prize. They show part of the less important speeches, and all of maybe one big one. I taped their live coverage each night and haven't watched most of it yet, but I have seen enough to have a good idea of what they're doing.

The local newspaper's TV section in yesterday's paper still shows regular CBS programming in the 10:00 hour for next week. Yet my TiVo has it right and I've already set it to tape the CBS coverage. Although NBC had Tom Brokaw and it was worth seeing him again. He talks like Johnny Carson now, but I have fond memories of him from when he was younger.

Savannah really shouldn't smile so big when she mentions sex. She has the nicest teeth and she is really good looking. But I guess she knows what she's talking about.
 
Convention coverage continued after local news on CBS, although with a more humorous angle. Stephen Colbert did some pre-recorded pieces from the RNC this week, and will probably do the same next week at the DNC in Philadelphia. Having someone who has heritage in politics is a plus for him. Kind of like having Fallon at the Grammy Awards or Kimmel at the Super Bowl. Bringing Jon Stewart out of retirement made it even better for Colbert, as well as reprising his old character from The Colbert Report. Personally I felt Stewart's commentary Thursday night was brilliant, even though he forgot he was live on broadcast TV for a moment and let a word or two slip (bleeped out, obviously thanks to a delay). James Corden ran his Carpool Karaoke with Michelle Obama on Wednesday night, and it was absolutely hilarious. It's definitely my favorite late night feature. I really think if folks were looking for political humor last week (since there was none at the RNC), it was available on the two CBS late night shows. Runner-up goes to MSNBC for using the Saturday Night Live troupe during their after hours coverage.
 
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The Watergate hearings probably didn't throw off soaps too much because they could just pick up where they left off. But it threw game shows with weekly cycles of celebrity guests off. I can remember jokes being made about it on Match Game.
 
The networks started primetime on the west coast from the beginning after the RNC coverage ended. It wasn't as bad Wednesday as it was last night. All three networks cut out around 8:17 PT on Wednesday, but Thursday Trump didn't finish until 8:35 local time, and primetime started after 8:40! West coast "Big Brother" fans didn't see the live eviction until after 10PM last night.
I'm sure it will be just as bad next week with the DNC.

My local Fox did *not* air any RNC coverage. At all. They had their usual double-run of 2 Broke Girls from 7-8pm, going into Fox primetime as if it was a regular evening.
 
Some folks who saw Trump's speech in advance said they felt he wouldn't go long. They said it was less than an hour. But he ended up going way past 11PM ET. I suspect he ad-libbed a lot from the written version.
 
I was at the beach one year. Now why I would have been inside I don't know.

I was at the beach (Dewey Beach, DE) during one week of the hearings. Our cottage didn't have a TV, but my dad brought the radio and we heard the hearings on WCAU (now WPHT) when we were at the cottage. I *do* remember the hearings preempting the morning game shows I liked to watch when I wasn't in school.

The next summer, we were heading out of Dewey/Rehoboth/Lewes back to the Delaware Valley on the afternoon of Aug. 8, 1974 when (probably on WCAU again) we heard, perhaps from Ron Ziegler, that Nixon was going to address the nation that night. My dad dropped me off at my mom's late that afternoon and she and I watched the resignation speech that night.

ixnay
 
The fact that gavel-to-gavel lasted as long as it did (until 1980) is stunning. Maybe three of those conventions in the TV era had any doubt over who would win. Yet the networks still threw their full resources at the two conventions.

CNN and C-SPAN were up and running by the time of the 1980 conventions, so that summer was sort of a passing of the torch.

ixnay
 
Yet the networks still threw their full resources at the two conventions.

I wasn't at this year's RNC, but I've been to quite a few political conventions, and I can attest that the networks STILL throw all of their resources at the conventions. They budget all year for events like this. They still spend as much money on their sky-booths and satellite trucks as they did 30 years ago. All of their top talent are there. They may not get as much network air time, but they have cable and online platforms that utilize all of those people. The fact that both conventions were close to NYC made them no-brainers, and they also fly in top brass, advertisers, and stockholders. The fact that no one has an exclusive makes important for status. You don't want to be shown up by the competition.
 
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The networks started primetime on the west coast from the beginning after the RNC coverage ended. It wasn't as bad Wednesday as it was last night. All three networks cut out around 8:17 PT on Wednesday, but Thursday Trump didn't finish until 8:35 local time, and primetime started after 8:40! West coast "Big Brother" fans didn't see the live eviction until after 10PM last night.
I'm sure it will be just as bad next week with the DNC.

My local Fox did *not* air any RNC coverage. At all. They had their usual double-run of 2 Broke Girls from 7-8pm, going into Fox primetime as if it was a regular evening.


Well in San Francisco the RNC convention did air on Fox O&O KTVU+ under the Fox 2 News at 7 banner. Yes as usual KTVU+ the Fox O&O here in the Bay Area used the Fox News feed from Cleveland but redubbed with KTVU Staff to report on the convention.
 
Some folks who saw Trump's speech in advance said they felt he wouldn't go long. They said it was less than an hour. But he ended up going way past 11PM ET. I suspect he ad-libbed a lot from the written version.

Trump also boasted that his ratings "went though the roof," but while he may have won over the 32 million viewers who tuned in to make his case, in reality John McCain had better numbers than Trump with 40 million viewers tuning in.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-donald-trumps-rnc-913569
 
Could be the first President who measures his success by TV ratings. Was it Orwell or McLuhan who predicted that?

I'd say that JFK was the first, based on his debates with Nixon in 1960. A lot of people were swung to Kennedy's side after watching them on TV. Those who listened on radio preferred Nixon. Kennedy himself may not have mentioned it, but I'm sure his campaign people took note.
 
Kennedy himself may not have mentioned it, but I'm sure his campaign people took note.

That's what I'm talking about...having the candidate himself talking about his own TV ratings. We've had politicians who make policy based on the polls. Quite a new thing to base policy on what gets the highest TV ratings. I don't know if one is better than the other, but certainly critics have attacked politicians for making decisions based on polls.
 
That's what I'm talking about...having the candidate himself talking about his own TV ratings. We've had politicians who make policy based on the polls. Quite a new thing to base policy on what gets the highest TV ratings. I don't know if one is better than the other, but certainly critics have attacked politicians for making decisions based on polls.

What we have today on the big 4 networks (excluding Fox), is what has been become known as "The Golden Hour". 10pm EDT, 7pm PDT. As such, the conventions schedule their big events in this window. If they go over, so be it...most will stay with overages. This actually has been going on for many convention cycles but it it now definitely the standard. Junkies know to turn to CNN/FOX for wall to wall, but even they edit as they please. True, CSPAN is the only true wall to wall, but lacks much commentary. Some would say that is a good thing.
 
Could be the first President who measures his success by TV ratings. Was it Orwell or McLuhan who predicted that?

But wait Donald Trump supposedly measures his presidential campaign success based on how many people in politics look at his Twitter Profile.

Also the first time we hear about who the VP is. It's now the Candidate and Party Chairperson that now announces that VP on Twitter and a few days before the party convention. Case and point Clinton and Kaine on the DNC Ticket and Trump and Pence on the RNC Side.
 
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