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NEW YORK - ABC, CBS and NBC decided not to offer live coverage of President Bush's speech about Iraq on Monday, although the cable news networks pre-empted their regular programming.
The broadcast networks took an unusual amount of time to tell viewers their plans for Bush's speech - ABC didn't decide until Monday afternoon - because the Bush administration did not formally request the time.
Monday was one of the last nights of the May "sweeps" period, when TV ratings are used to set local advertising rates.
NBC had two editions of Fear Factor scheduled on Monday. CBS had season finales of its popular Monday-night comedies, and ABC was showing the film A Beautiful Mind.