Once again, the race for the White House has provided Viacom with a opening gag for its “CMT Music Awards.”
President Obama and Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney each had taped appearances for the opening of Wednesday night’s trophy show, which, according to conventional wisdom, plays strong in the Heartland.
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.
(AP) - President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney have taped appearances for the opening of Wednesday night’s CMT Music Awards.
Obama and the presumptive GOP nominee were both “in on the joke,” CMT network President Brian Philips said Wednesday, adding bipartisanly: “They’re each great sports.”
It went like this:
At the top of the show, after a Lady Antebellum kickoff, various TV news and infotainment on-air talent — Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb, Steve Kroft, Maria Menounos and Mario Lopez — weighed in on “disturbing reports” that this year’s trophy show hosts, Toby Keith and Kristen Bell, did not want to share the spotlight. Naturally, Obama and Romney were asked to weigh in because, well, we don’t actually know.
“This is one of the toughest decisions I have had to make since I’ve been in office,” Obama said stiffly, as if he knew the material was all wrong. “But, I have decided — I want them both,” he added, gamely.
“I thought the presidential election was a tough race, but it’s nothing compared to the politics of the ‘CMT Music Awards,’ ” Romney chimed in, even more awkwardly, which we didn’t think was possible.
“I think I have a solution though,” Romney continued dubiously. “I propose Toby and Kristen co-host. See, I just put two people back to work. You’re welcome, America.”
Note to presidential candidates in 2016: Demand better writers.
Four years ago, Democratic hopefuls Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as Republican candidate John McCain and Donald Trump, participated in a taped opening bit for the annual awards special. In that bit, the three candidates and Trump were seen phoning around, trying to score tickets to the trophy show, which, viewers were asked to believe, were impossibly hard to score.
“I’m a billionaire many times over, and I have really great hair. What I am not is a magician,” Trump was seen telling country crooner Trace “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” Adkins, who had contacted his former “Celebrity Apprentice” boss in his own desperation to snag tickets.
That 2008 “CMT Music Awards” telecast clocked an average of 2.8 million viewers, up from 2.1 million in ’07.
A rigged pageant?
Speaking of The Donald, he took to the morning infotainment shows Wednesday to announce that the Miss Universe Organization plans to sue a former Miss Pennsylvania, who turned in her tiara Tuesday as she claimed that Sunday’s Miss USA pageant was fixed.
Miss Rhode Island, Olivia Culpo, was named the new Miss USA on the broadcast by NBC. The Miss USA pageant winner goes on to compete this year in the Miss Universe pageant, which is also broadcast on NBC.
The ex-Miss Pennsylvania, Sheena Monnin, said on her Facebook page that she saw another competitor correctly call out the names of the top five finalists on Sunday’s pageant “before they were announced,” based on information the competitor found in a folder before the show.
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