Tune in to CNN at 8 p.m. ET for President Obama’s address on immigration in English and tune in to CNNE for a broadcast in Spanish.
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Univision will delay its broadcast of the Latin Grammys to air president Obama's immigration speech
Broadcast networks will not carry president Obama's immigration speech Thursday night
It will of course be broadcast on CNN
English-language broadcast networks won’t carry President Obama’s primetime address outlining his plans for executive action on deportations Thursday night, but the speech is set to make a big splash among his target audience — Hispanic Americans — as it cuts into one of the Hispanic community’s biggest television events of the year, the Latin Grammys.
The four major networks —ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — currently have no plans to broadcast it, most instead airing their fall finales — a choice one Hispanic advocate called a “double standard” aimed at President Obama.
Related: Broadcast networks opt out of Obama immigration speech
Spanish-language network Univision plans to postpone the Latin Grammys to air the president’s speech live, and will turn back to the star-studded awards show afterwards. Last year’s show averaged around 4.6 million viewers, according to Univision, and was the number-two network that night- English or Spanish - among the coveted 18–34 demographic.
Univision is also airing an additional special after the speech on its UniMas network, and will have special reports on Obama’s move all weekend.
Telemundo, too, is airing the speech live, instead of its originally scheduled telenovela. The network draws nearly 1.5 million average viewers during its primetime period.
Both Univision and Telemundo will translate the speech live into Spanish.
“I don’t think this is something we have any reference for,” said Telemundo spokesman Camilo Pino, asked about the expected viewership of the speech Thursday night.
“But that’s primetime for us, so it’s big for us.”
The White House declined to comment on the size of the Hispanic audience they expect to hit with the address. Senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer dodged a question from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on whether the Grammys’ popularity was a factor in the timing of the speech.
“I don’t know if it’s a factor or a coincidence, but we’re happy that Univision and CNN is broadcasting it,” Pfeiffer said.
Some Republicans, however, have expressed skepticism over the scheduling.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, when informed of the timing, scoffed to reporters, “talk about a major pander.”
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The Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment on their plans to respond on Hispanic-language media.
Arturo Carmona, executive director of Hispanic advocacy group Presente.org, said the choice to air the speech was “indicative of the importance of the issue,” and slammed the four major networks for refusing to air the speech live.
“We think they should be ashamed of themselves, the fact that they’re not airing this critical speech,” he said.
Carmona said that when President George W. Bush announced sending thousands of troops to the border in 2006, the major networks cut into their scheduled programming to broadcast his address live.
“The fact that they’re not doing the same for President Obama speaks of a double standard,” he said.