Ann Romney discusses abortion views on ‘The View’

As the chat was winding down, Ann Romney acknowledged that she does not watch TV, while insisting she’s “a big TV fan.”

“I don’t want to watch the ads,” she explained.

More from Lisa de Moraes

Pulitzer Prize winner, Peabody recipient, Medal of Freedom honoree -- Lisa de Moraes is none of these, but she is an authority on the bad direction, over-acting, and muddled plot lines being played out in the TV industry's executive suites.

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Mitt Romney through the years: A look at the former Massachusetts governor’s long career in business and politics.

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And by ads, she means campaign ads. In swing states.

“The audience in swing states are sick of them!” she emoted.

And, apparently, she is, too. They put her in a bad place. Go figure.

“I just opted to stay in a good place. A happy place. A positive place,” she said.

“I don’t watch television for the moment.”

‘Animal’ detraction

Crystal the Monkey has been told to turn in her stethoscope.

NBC announced Thursday that it’s pulling Crystal’s show, “Animal Practice,” from its Wednesday time slot after Nov. 7. The series stars (in theory) Justin Kirk as a hotshot vet at a New York animal hospital; Crystal — a movie star whose credits include “The Hangover II,” “Night at the Museum” and “We Bought a Zoo” — plays Dr. Rizzo, an assistant and bookie.

NBC is replacing “Animal Practice” with its benched Whitney Cummings comedy, “Whitney,” on Nov. 14.

“Animal Practice” was given the impossible task of opening up Wednesday nights for NBC. Serious students of TV know that asking a new series to kick off a prime-time night at 8 is generally risky, if not foolhardy — particularly when the competition includes ABC’s hot comedies, CBS’s “Survivor” and Fox’s “The X Factor” — unless that new series includes some major pre-sold commodity.

Like, it stars Ryan Gosling.

Or it’s about a popular DC Comics superhero who has been around for decades and is played by an actor hired for his ability to give women the vapors.

CW’s “Arrow,” for instance, which was unveiled at 8 two Wednesdays ago and both times beat “Animal Practice” among advertiser-preferred 18- to-49-year-old viewers. That did in “Animal Practice” — no Big Three broadcast network enjoys getting beat by CW.

Obama on ‘The Daily Show’

Stating the obvious, President Obama on Thursday told Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, that he had an “off night” during the first presidential debate and that his “presentation was not what it needed to be.”

His opponent “makes a good presentation,” but the “fundamentals of what [Mitt Romney] is calling for are the same policies that got us into this mess,” Obama said during taping of that night’s episode.

Stewart asked how many times a week Veep Joe Biden comes to meetings in a wet bathing suit. “We had to stop that,” Obama responded, adding, “I gotta say, though, he looks pretty good.”

To read previous columns by Lisa de Moraes, go to washingtonpost.com/tvblog.