It’s way too early to know whether or not Fred Thompson will get the job of the next President of the United States. What we do know is that he’ll continue his reign as New York City’s district attorney—on cable at least.
Thompson, who is scheduled to officially announce his presidential bid on September 6, has appeared as DA Arthur Branch for the past five seasons of the original Law & Order. TNT broadcasts the reruns, which fills up to eight hours of programming a day.
Thompson left the show at the end of last season, in preparation for his upcoming presidential bid. NBC, who airs L&Os original episodes has previously said that they would refrain from showing any reruns that feature Thompson, in keeping with the FCC’s equal-time regulations. These regulations, however, do not apply to cable channels. Because of this, Zap2It is reporting that “TNT has no plans to alter its programming schedule,” which is good, because the original Law & Order DA gives me the creeps.
This is a unique situation in American politics. Thompson, of course, is not the first actor who has run for the presidency, but while Bedtime for Bonzo made Ronald Reagan quite popular, it was filmed 40 years before he ran for president---not one. Hilary Clinton can do as many Letterman Top 10 lists as she can stand, but that still won’t put her on the air 8 hours a day. How can the other candidates possible get an equal amount of television face time?
In this case, the problem and solution are the same: Law & Order. Just think about it. In addition to the original, you’ve also got Criminal Intent and SVU. Stick Obama on SVU as a victims rights advocate, Hilary on Criminal Intent as the new captain and put Romney on the original as the new out-of-town detective who no one’s quite sure about yet. It’s a win-win. The senior franchise gets a boatload of buzz and the candidates get their faces out there in perpetuity. Plus, I become the hero who saved both television and the presidential race. It’s pretty much a genius idea.
Oh, wait. Did I say genius? I meant insane. I always get those two words mixed up.
Law & Order's 18th season (without Fred Thompson) starts January on NBC.
