Despite World Series, Barack Obama to appear on NBC, CBS, Fox and The Daily Show on Wednesday

Even the completion (we hope) of Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday won't keep Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama from his moment in the prime time spotlight.

Officials at Fox and Major League Baseball say Obama's half-hour prime time special, scheduled to air on CBS, NBC and Fox at 8 p.m. Wednesday, will air as planned just before the scheduled resumption of Game 5, which was suspended on Monday night due to excessive rain and canceled on Tuesday night, also because of weather.

(UPDATE: Obama's special will also air on Univision, MSNBC, BET, and TV One. the New York Times has a few bits of information on what viewers may see.) 

The only question left: What will Obama actually do?

Currently, the first pitch is scheduled for 8:37 p.m., allowing Fox to air Obama's special and cut over to the World Series game. Presumably, preliminary elements such as the national anthem and introductory analysis will be cut or shifted from the start of the show to make room.

Come Wednesday, Obama will stand at the center of a serious amount of TV attention, from his half-hour special at 8 p.m. -- purchased for a reported $1-million per network -- to an 11 p.m. appearance with Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

What no one at the networks will say for sure, is what Obama will actually do or say during the special. Spokesmen from each of the networks said that, because Obama's remarks are classified as a political advertising buy -- albeit an incredibly large one -- they don't have the ability to vet the broadcast in detail.

It's hard to imagine the telegenic Obama repeating the performance by the last presidential candidate to buy a huge chunk of prime time 16 years and three weeks ago: Ross Perot. Back in 1992, Perot faced a camera for 30 minutes several times on different networks, armed with more than two dozen charts and graphs, explaining to the audience why the economy was faltering.

But in the end, Perot drew audiences comparable to other prime time fare and scored nearly 20 percent of the popular vote. So maybe Obama could do worse than follow his lead. *

Click below to read the Daily Show press release:

NEW YORK, October 28, 2008 -- Senator Barack Obama will make his fourth appearance as a guest on the Emmy® and Peabody® Award-winning "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Wednesday, October 29 at 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT).  Obama’s last appearance on “The Daily Show” was on April 21, the eve of the Pennsylvania Primary.  The Democratic nominee for President of the United States also appeared on August 22, 2007 and November 7, 2005.  Obama will appear via satellite from Florida where he continues his campaign with less than one week until Election Day.

“The Daily Show’s” “Indecision 2008” coverage of the presidential campaign will culminate a week from tonight when it joins forces with “The Colbert Report” to present “Indecision 2008: America’s Choice,” a LIVE, primetime Election Night special from 10:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. PT) that will be co-anchored by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert from "The Daily Show’s" New York studio.

Comments

[David]

Good lord, do we REALLY need 30 minutes of drivel from a candidate who will say anything -- and the record will show ANYTHING -- to get elected?

While this 30 minute infomercial will do wonders for the MSM's erectile dysfunction issue, it will not do much to advance politics in this country.

The lesser of two evils, indeed....

[RagsTTIger]

I was particularly disturbed by the line in the New York Times article stating "Obama seated at a kitchen table with a group of white, apparently working-class voters ..."

Where is the diversity in that?

Typical Obama mixed message, on an Infommercial scale. Promise everything to everybody, without media scrutiny. Isn't this a great marketing technique? This approach surely won't benefit the voters who are on the fence.

Why is it the people in the Obama Press Corps talk about how difficult it is to talk to him? He apparently has only given them one news conference a month, during his campaign. With such limited access one has to wonder where the "insightful" stories come from? The traveling press corps say that he is distant, rarely interacting with them on the plane or bus when traveling.

These final days of pre-election politics are most harried. I'm looking forward to a long rest from the barrage of political TV spots.

[RagsTTIger]

I was particularly disturbed by the line in the New York Times article stating "Obama seated at a kitchen table with a group of white, apparently working-class voters ..."

Where is the diversity in that?

Typical Obama mixed message, on an Infommercial scale. Promise everything to everybody, without media scrutiny. Isn't this a great marketing technique? This approach surely won't benefit the voters who are on the fence.

Why is it the people in the Obama Press Corps talk about how difficult it is to talk to him? He apparently has only given them one news conference a month, during his campaign. With such limited access one has to wonder where the "insightful" stories come from? The traveling press corps say that he is distant, rarely interacting with them on the plane or bus when traveling.

These final days of pre-election politics are most harried. I'm looking forward to a long rest from the barrage of political TV spots.

[DoctorDoom]

I will this miss this as I have a rule to not watch infomercials.

Guess he has to spend all the money he received, after he reneged on his pledge to accept public financing, somehow.

Spurs/Suns ESPN 8pm baby!

Welcome to Marxism and Socialism.

Ya think the economy would be the mess it's in now if good 'ole Ross had become Prez? No, he wasn't as slick and "pretty" as Obama and Clinton, but he sure knew his s**t. I used to work for one of his companies years ago and he treated the employees - the ones that deserved it - like gold. He would have treated his employees - the American people - the same way. Wish he was running this term. The 2 scary clowns we have now; well, it's a choice between the lesser of 2 evils...