Hollywood isn’t happy with NBCUniversal and Comcast executives airing its town hall Thursday night with President Donald Trump opposite ABC’s Joe Biden special.
Over 100 Hollywood actors, directors, producers and showrunners on Thursday sent a petition to NBCUniversal and Comcast executives protesting the time slot and asking for a switch.
“We have always thought of NBCUniversal as both a terrific creative home and a brand that stands for the best in entertainment and broadcast journalism,” the letter said. “This is why we have been devastated to learn that you have chosen to air President Trump’s town hall this Thursday night at 8 p.m., directly opposite Vice President Biden’s town hall."
The list includes Aaron Sorkin, J.J. Abrams, Ryan Murphy, Greg Berlanti, Ava DuVernay, Seth MacFarlane, Damon Lindelof, Kenya Barris, Phil Lloyd & Chris Miller, Adam McKay, Courtney Kemp, Tom McCarthy, Billy Porter, Seth Rogen, Ben Stiller, Allison Janney, Robert Kirkman, Julianne Moore and Amy Schumer.
“This is not a partisan issue. This is about the political health of our democracy,” the group said in the letter addressed to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell and NBCUniversal News Group Chairman Cesar Conde.
NBC won’t budge on the time slot.
“We share in the frustration that our event will initially air alongside the first half of ABC’s broadcast with Vice President Biden. Our decision is motivated only by fairness, not business considerations. We aired a town hall with Vice President Biden on October 5 at 8pm. If we were to move our town hall with President Trump to a later time slot we would be violating our commitment to offer both campaigns access to the same audience and the same forum. We hope voters will watch both discussions — ours will be available at any time, free and on-demand on YouTube, Peacock and all our digital news platforms,” said Conde.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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