Which television shows are you watching this week, the Democratic National Convention coverage or anything but?
Are you suffering from Olympic letdown or did you leave town for the beautiful Rockies to escape the tube trap and traffic?
According to the national press, which is fighting harder for ratings than Bob Costas shilled for the fall NBC lineup during the Olympics, there was only one show in town — “Family Feud.”
No matter if a delegate wants to talk about health care, housing crisis or the cost of war they were asked, “Do you think Hillary supporters will get behind the Obama candidacy? You do? Really? What about ...? Their search for “Desperate Housewives” is relentless.
Even when I think I watched carefully I don’t see what they see. Last night I watched Hillary Clinton enthusiastically and artfully move her supporters towards Obama.
But post speech punditry left me wondering if commentators were watching the same screen? PBS’ Gwen Eifel and CNN Candy Crowley shared my view, but Pat Robertson, Fox News and Rudy Giuliani thought it didn’t support him enough or was positioning for 2012.
“No way, no doubt, no McCain,” left me in no doubt.
As a political junky without apology I have watched a good portion of every convention since I was 6 years old in 1952. Then a returning war hero was battling Adlai Stevenson, a much younger liberal, articulate, thoughtful senator from Illinois.
Have I seen this one before? Difference then was the soon to be President Eisenhower was committed to getting us out of a bad war in Korea as much as Stevenson.
For me, conventions have as much four-year fascination as the marathon, beach volleyball, downhill and bobsled combined. When you think about it this is the 400 relay that really matters and Chinese medal count is growing.
If you doubt it, imagine an America, devastated by Sept. 11 after which that stiff guy, who didn’t invent the Internet, calls America to public service, pursues Bin Laden relentlessly and uses sympathy for America to unite the free world.
That pilot never aired.
To get your political blood boiling watch the HBO movie “Recount.” I won’t tell you how it comes out, but it doesn’t have a happy ending.
Based on early Nielsens, as a convention watcher, I’m in the real minority party — those who care. A rerun of “Two and a Half Men” and an episode of “How I Met Your Mother” outdrew any network coverage of the convention. Univision saw it’s sharpest spike in ratings when the English networks switched to the conventions.
Top convention ratings jump went to PBS, the real “fair and balanced” network or maybe because it has no commercials
Maybe because, in prime time, it shows that the Democrats have run a pretty G-rated production. Kiefer Sutherland may use torture to fight terrorism in “24” but so far topics like extraordinary rendition (secret prisons), water boarding and warrantless wiretaps haven’t made it to the airwaves.
Meanwhile, Denver is doing its best to show the only episodes of “General Hospitable.” Hick and company deserve at least four stars for the sheer effort.
Those tuning in for a rerun of “Wild in the Streets” have been disappointed and it remains to be seen if “Armies of the Night” will roll next week in Minneapolis?
The only suspense left in the last days of Democratic programming is whether Bill Clinton as “The Spoiler” will hurt the ratings of Obama’s stadium seating only season finale as “The Closer.”
Here is one programming prediction I’ll put real money on:
Whatever your view of “Star Trek” — religion or the supernatural — if you watched this week’s convention and can handle the fanny fatigue of watching the Republican show next week you will be convinced most Americans live in parallel universes.
The final episode to decide which galaxy we will live in for the next four years is still two months away — stay tuned.
