'Lost' Fans Fear State of the Union Speech Will Pre-Empt Season Premiere

(Jan. 7) – President Obama might lose the "Lost" vote if he picks the night of Feb. 2 to deliver his State of the Union address.

The president traditionally gives the speech in late January. But this year, the White House has indicated it might push back the date to give Congress time to pass a health care reform bill, which Obama would celebrate in his address.

The TV networks expected Obama to speak on Tuesday, Jan. 26, but now there's word that the White House might move it to the next Tuesday, according to The Washington Post. That would force ABC to pre-empt the season premiere of its hit series "Lost." The three-hour episode will kick off what's billed as the final season of the show.

Worried fans are already mobilizing online. There's at least one Facebook group and even a Twitter hashtag: #NoStateofUnionFeb2.

There's often grumbling from TV viewers and programming executives when the president "requests" – and is nearly always granted – airtime on all the major networks. During his first year in office, Obama has popped up in prime time much more often than his predecessors.

Last month, some of the president's critics branded him a Grinch – among other things – because his speech about the war in Afghanistan bumped the annual broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on CBS. Arlington, Tenn., Mayor Russell Wiseman unleashed an over-the-top Facebook message that read, in part: "... we sit the kids down to watch 'The Charlie Brown Christmas Special' and our muslim president is there, what a load ... try to convince me that wasn't done on purpose."

Not all the complaints are as vitriolic as Wiseman's, but some TV viewers do hold a grudge. There are fans of "Chuck" who still blame Obama for killing the NBC show's momentum because it was pre-empted by a presidential appearance one Monday night last year, said Robert Seidman of TV by the Numbers.

Network execs groaned last March when Obama held a news conference during the all-important ratings sweeps. Schedules were scrambled to open up an hour of commercial-free airtime.

"Every time the president disrupts prime time, the networks lose another couple million dollars," one industry insider told TVWeek at the time. "In this economy, that's the last thing we need."

Just weeks after he took office, network executives started to bristle at Obama's frequent requests to go on the air. One told The Washington Post last February: "His economic stimulus package apparently does not extend to the TV networks."

Last June, after the fourth prime-time news conference of his presidency, TVGuide.com ran an unscientific poll and found 61 percent would rather see their regular shows than watch what Obama had to say.