Dr Phil is not airing because somebody has decided that everybody needs to be forced to watch the stupid arrival of the stupid Pope live.
I thought this kind of crap only happened in Putin’s Russia where people are regularly inconvenienced by the idiotic events of the idiotic Orthodox Church that are pushed in their faces. I thought we had separation of church and state in this country, yet everybody has to be exposed to the disgraceful spectacle of our political leaders smooching some boring old wanker.
This is so obnoxious.
Clarissa's Blog 
I guess the TV networks calculated that the pope’s arrival would garner higher ratings than Dr. Phil. Does this telecast have any commercial breaks?
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If only I could believe that this was economically motivated. But in this country, there is not even a glimmer of a realization that religion and politics don’t need to mix. That’s the real problem.
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The nation’s biggest TV-news outlets are hoping to get a ratings halo by devoting resources to this week’s U.S. visit by Pope Francis.
TV-news correspondents will fan out across the trail of his visit, which is taking Pontifex Maximus from Cuba to Washington, D.C., to New York and, finally, to Philadelphia. But few will have the eye-view of NBC News correspondent Anne Thompson, CBS News operative Allen Pizzey, and ABC News correspondent Terry Moran, all of whom are traveling with the Holy Father on the Papal plane throughout his trip from Rome and back again. Thompson’s reporting is scheduled to appear on both MSNBC and NBC.
Many of the country’s most recognizable anchors – from Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith to ABC News’ David Muir – will converge on Washington, D.C. as Pope Francis visits there today and Wednesday. Both CBS’ Scott Pelley and ABC’s David Muir are set to anchor their respective evening-news programs, “The CBS Evening News” and “World News Tonight,” from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception – Muir on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Pelley on Wednesday. Muir will also anchor from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York on September 24 and from Philadelphia on September 27. Lester Holt, the anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News,” is expected to hold forth live from” unique locations in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, New York on Thursday and Friday, and Philadelphia on Sunday,” NBC News said.
For the networks, a big news event represents a chance to burnish credentials and impress viewers with interesting “gets” and reporting. This particular visit will have more importance than usual to MSNBC, which is sort of debuting formally a new daytime lineup devoted to breaking news and brought more in tandem with the operations of NBC News.The nation’s biggest TV-news outlets are hoping to get a ratings halo by devoting resources to this week’s U.S. visit by Pope Francis.
TV-news correspondents will fan out across the trail of his visit, which is taking Pontifex Maximus from Cuba to Washington, D.C., to New York and, finally, to Philadelphia. But few will have the eye-view of NBC News correspondent Anne Thompson, CBS News operative Allen Pizzey, and ABC News correspondent Terry Moran, all of whom are traveling with the Holy Father on the Papal plane throughout his trip from Rome and back again. Thompson’s reporting is scheduled to appear on both MSNBC and NBC.
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/tv-news-outlets-hope-to-find-glory-in-papal-visit-coverage-1201599809
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The channels that have preempted regular programming to cover the Pope’s arrival don’t have religion in mind — they want the ratings that this coverage with get them.
About a quarter of the U.S. population is Catholic, and millions of viewers, Catholic and the merely curious, will be tuned in for this rare event (3rd Pope in history to visit America).
I won’t be watching it, but the fact is, American TV shows often get interrupted for nonsense like extended police car chases, all-day coverage following a plane accident with nothing new to report after the first 10 minutes, sports events that run 30 minutes overtime, etc., etc.
It’s a fact of life with American TV.
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What the others said. It’s not any kind of government edict or even suggestion it’s what private broadcasters think viewers/listeners want.
Popes don’t visit the US every year (or decade?) so it’s kind of a big deal when it does happen.
At least there are other broadcast and media options available. When I was growing up we had three channels we could watch (2 CBS and one NBC) so when they both covered the same thing it was a lot worse….
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I’d much rather Obama stayed in his office working to resolve the Syrian crisis than pranced around the airfield with this obnoxious popularity – seeking hound. I detest it when people engage in their religious pursuits anywhere but inside their churches, mosques, temples, etc. This is a private matter that should not be inflicted on innocent bystanders.
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The Pope has a following that makes the ROC seem like a wayside chapel in comparison. And, although as retrograde on women’s rights as Pope Panzenfaust, he has made some noises about worshiping Mammon that have gotten the RW fools in a tizzy. An excellent trade for an episode of Dr. Phil, IMHO.
And yes, Americans are much more religious than their counterparts in Western Europe and Canada. Did that not come to your attention before you decided to start working in this country?
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Beyoncé has an even greater following, yet I’m not seeing any programming interrupted on her behalf. Since when is it OK to sell people crap they didn’t consent to pay for just because somebody else chooses to worship these unwanted goods?
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If there were some extreme news regarding Beyoncé, there would definitely be an interruption of ongoing programs to cover the news. It would take something extreme, such as her being on a plane hijacked to North Korea, or her visiting a research base in Antarctica, or maybe visiting the ISS. The Pope visiting The U. S. is as newsworthy an event as these unlikely possibilities would be, in my opinion.
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I cannot imagine anybody interrupting scheduled programming to show Beyonce’s visit to a research base in Antarctica. If only we lived in the world where people cared about research bases or Antarctica that much.
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And if we are talking about Christian religious people, I suggest you try opening the New Testament. When you do so, you will see that everything that happened in that broadcast is deeply alien to the teachings of Christianity.
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Did I say the broadcast was in any way representative of Christianity? Your quarrel is with capitalism, as they found it more profitable to broadcast the visit than to play yet another episode of Dr. Phil. You remind me of a friend who was incensed by the fact that MLK shooting pre-empted her usual afternoon programming. Of course, we were both 8 at the time, so it was understandable. Your objection, OTOH…………..
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I once again insist that this is not about profit. Especially since the commercials that would have been run during the regularly scheduled program weren’t aired.
It doesn’t occur to anybody to interrupt scheduled programming of a religious program to show the arrival of Dr Phil anywhere. Yet, there does exist this insane belief that the celebrity called the Pope is somehow more worthy of respect and attention than the celebrity called Dr Phil. But that’s a delusion. Both are only of interest to their fans. And nobody should be forced into anybody else’s fandom.
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A television channel doesn’t need to show commercials during a special news event for that event to be profitable. The huge ratings that the commercial-free event generates will allow the network to charge advertisers more for their other shows, because of the network’s overall popularity.
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All that was shown today, in another Dr Phil disruption, was a very slow progress of the Popemobile down a street. That’s all. In this age of flashy images and constant visual stimilation, only the very elderly and fanatical would want to watch it.
The Marxist explanation (“It’s all about profit”) only works about 2% of time. The rest of time, it fails.
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You are vastly underestimating the capability of millions of television viewers to watch absolutely boring imagery for hours, if they’re told that they’re witnessing history.
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I have a huge group of students who are missing a couple of days of class to go to DC to see the Pope. I actually think this pope is much better than the other popes of the last couple millenia, but I still find the disruption a bit annoying.
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