ABC probably thought it was safe putting the beginning of the final round of Lost episodes on the schedule for Monday 2/2/10 – the odds of being pre-empted by another national presidential primetime time-grab-and-gab would be very low so soon after the State of the Union address. But what if SOTU is rescheduled for 2/2/10?
Washington Post television scribe Lisa de Moraes says that the networks seem to have been clued into a SOTU date of 1/26/10, at least to the point that they could put it on the calendar in pencil.
However, the possibility of getting a sealed, signed and delivered health care bill between 1/26/10 and 2/2/10 could be a strong motivator to move SOTU back from its standard late-January delivery date.
If that happens, ABC’s prodigious Lost 2/2/10 marketing campaign may have gone for naught.
RBR-TVBR observation: There may be some presidential speeches for which the administration would go to some length to accommodate the needs of the networks. SOTU is not one of them.
It would certainly be inconvenient for ABC to have to reschedule. However, we don’t think the marketing will go to waste. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, interest drummed up is interest drummed up is interest drummed up. We suspect that Lost junkies will know when to tune in to get their episode, whenever it ends up airing.
