Major Networks Preempt Monday Primetime Schedule for Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Unveiling
By Cynthia Littleton
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The major networks are making room in Monday’s primetime schedule for President Donald Trump’s unveiling of his Supreme Court nominee.
Trump’s decision to break the news at 9 p.m. ET on a weeknight — with three days advance notice — was clearly an effort to bring some showmanship to the announcement of his second choice of a judge to join the nine-member panel of the nation’s highest court. Trump is believed to be making his selection from a pool of three conservative finalists: Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Raymond Kethledge.
Although the summer months were once a sleepy period of reruns for ABC, CBS, and NBC, all three networks will preempt original programming to make room for Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Fox plans to air a rerun of drama “911” starting at 9:13 p.m. ET.
will preempt an original episode of drama “Elementary” that was set to run at 10 p.m. ET. Instead, CBS will carry a rerun of “NCIS: New Orleans” to fill out the 9 p.m. hour after CBS News special and move an original episode of summer drama “Salvation” to 10 p.m. rather than its original 9 p.m. berth.
plans to pause its regularly scheduled 8-10 p.m. episode of competition series “American Ninja Warrior” at 9 p.m. for about 20 minutes for Trump’s news. “Ninja Warrior” is expected to run until 10:20 p.m., with the rest of the hour filled out by “Dateline NBC.”
will also pause its 8-10 p.m. airing of “The Bachelorette” at 9 p.m. Reality show “The Proposal” will air in full after “Bachelorette” runs in full, meaning a late start for local 11 p.m. newscasts on ABC’s East Coast affiliates and a late start for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on the East Coast.
Fox Broadcasting’s coverage will be anchored by Shepard Smith at 9 p.m. eastern, with contributions by chief congressional correspondent Mike Emanuel.
ABC and NBC will carry their regular schedules for West Coast time zones. CBS’ revised lineup will air across all time zones.
(Pictured: “American Ninja Warrior”)
