Rush had a tv show in the early 1990s. I don’t think it was worth the effort for him, but only his hairdresser knows for sure.
One good reason is that TV is painfully slow, not spontaneous, and given to hours and hours of pre-planning. Doesn’t suit El Rushbo, and I understand why.
But I don’t presume to speak for him.
“But what many don’t know is that Rush had a popular TV program in the early-mid nineties.”
“Popular” is a stretch.
It just didn’t work.
He doesn't need to be.
If they take out talk radio he will have a TV show.
His ratings were better than letterman or Leno but he got put on at RedEye hours. In Los Angeles, he was on at 2am but he still got better ratings than Letterman. The local stations literally did everything they could do sabotage his show but it still drew audiences.
But Rush said that it took more time to produce the 30 minutes of TV than it did to do the 3 hour radio show and he didn’t want to spend time in LA. Plus, he had just done two of the biggest non-fictions books in recent publishing history and had the newsletter started. So he was not enjoying life as much as he wanted with the success of an 400+ radio stations (then).
But most of us still miss the chance to have a TV show with Rush. Hannity is the next best thing but it’s still not the same. I’d dig a show with F Lee Levin. That could be brutally awesome to have him invite ACLU types in and verbally abuse them into tears.
Dumbass question. Why should he be on TV?
We used to watch his show, but the station put it on later and later, and even then would pre-empt it!
Rush’s show was syndicated back then. Late, late at night.
But I’m thinking that now if he wanted a TV show, Fox News would give him any prime time slot he wanted.
He could rule the prime time cable news outright.
And if Obammie gets the UNFairness Doctrine passed to limit free speech on the radio.....
I fully expect Rush would segue right to TV.
Rush does much better when he’s just concentrating on his radio show. It’s an extra burden to Rush when he also has to concentrate on a daily TV show. Also, when Rush makes occasional TV appearances, it’s awesome for that show’s ratings, but, if Rush is on TV all of the time, then such “ratings bumps” vanish. Rush tried TV already, but it wasn’t as successful as he had hoped it would be, and being studio neighbors with Sally Jesse Raphael wasn’t helpful to him, either.
I think Rush has mentioned that he didn’t like being recognized everywhere he went.
I liked to watch...I remember that is where I first saw the Ron Brown funeral clip. This was before youtube or Foxnews, so Rush really was revealling things that never would have seen the light of day otherwise.
I remember that some places opened up Rush Rooms, where you could watch and eat dinner.
I think post # 8 comes the closest to having it correct. TV is controlled by the left with an almost strangle-hold. I once heard Rush on one of his radio shows discussing why he quit doing the TV show - right after he quit doing it. He said that in many markets, his TV show was pulling higher ratings at 1:00am and 2:00am than other shows airing at 12:00 midnight or earlier. Normally, this type of situation would cause the owners (or whomever) of the various TV stations to move said program to an earlier time slot, because it was obvious that the show was attracting higher ratings, and would therefore earn the TV station even higher revenues in an earlier timeslot. This is the nature of the TV industry, in a normal world.
However, in the case of Rush’s TV show, station managers noticed that even though they were getting higher ratings with Rush in the wee hours than shows that TV stations were airing during more advantageous (earlier) time slots, that those local TV stations were, against all logic, not moving Rush’s show into those earlier, more desirable time slots. In short, the liberal owners/managers of most TV stations were putting their personal politics ahead of the profits of their employers, and this seemed to be a consistent situation throughout the entire TV industry.
Think about that. This was back in the early to mid 90’s. If anything, the TV industry has gotten even worse in it’s liberalism since then. These people are willing to sacrifice larger profits, as long as it means keeping Conservatives off of their TV stations. They put their partisan politics before profits. Most people with common sense cannot comprehend that.
For some reason, talk radio seems to be immune to this. As such, the libs are now going after talk radio with “fairness doctrines” to force them into the same unwritten policies as their brethren in TV.
This phenomena is not completely unique. The movie industry based in Hollywood is doing the same thing (look at movies like “W”). Profits from Hollywood movies has been plummeting in recent years, due in large part (I believe) to the left-wing propaganda that is the main topic of many Hollywood movies. Most Americans don’t want to see that. And yet, in spite of the fact that the mainstream has NO interest in seeing left-wing drivel in movies, Hollywood continues to churn them out - even though many of those movies consistently lose money simply because of their left-wing subject matter.
Hollywood MUST know that this is the reason so many movies fail at the box office. Yet they continue to churn out left-wing propaganda that in turn continues to lose money. Why?? It defies all logic and common sense from a business standpoint. No business can survive unless it turns some sort of profit, and yet they continue to produce left-wing propaganda movies that they MUST know will fail.
Why do they continue to do this?? They sacrifice their multi-million dollar corporations in order to continue to produce propaganda for the left. Even if it means losing a LOT of money over a period of several years. For me, it sometimes seem that, like the TV station owners mentioned above, they actually place their political ideology ABOVE their profits - bottom line and corporate share-holders be danged!!!
They are willing to sacrifice the companies they are charged with running, rather than betray their socialist beliefs in their party or political system. This can also be seen in the newspaper industry, as newspapers will commit suicide - while falsely blaming declining revenues on the internet or the fact that people no longer buy classified ads in their rags. Committed liberals OWN the newspaper industrial complex, as well as the TV industrial complex, and the Hollywood industrial complex. All of these “industries” have been so taken over by liberals that the power players in those industries would rather fall on their own swords than allow a political viewpoint other than their own to be positively portrayed within their sphere of influence.
Back in the early to mid-90’s (when he was doing his TV show), I don’ t think that Rush had yet realized just HOW BAD it had gotten within the TV industry (and I believe it is even worse today). I know I did not know back then.
I think that back when he was doing his TV show he still believed (as I did) that if he showed them that they could make more money because he generated higher ratings, that they would grudgingly move him to a better time slot - until he eventually had a successful TV show, in spite of what those in the TV industry thought of him.
Rush did not realize that even back then, those in control of the TV industry did not care about profits quite as much as they cared about keeping Conservatives off of “their” airwaves. From the comments Rush made around the time he decided to stop doing his TV show, I think he learned what he was up against, and decided there was no point in trying to fight it, as he could not win. Bette to concentrate on his radio show - a battle that he COULD win.
We no longer have freedom of the press in our country, because the left has so thoroughly taken over the print and TV news media, as well as the Hollywood movie industry. The very state of the newspaper, TV, and Hollywood entertainment industries today is a “violation” of freedom of the press. And yet, they want to go even further and stifle Conservatives even more by implementing bogus “hate crimes” and “fairness doctrine” legislation.
Conservatives in the U.S.A. have been frequently repressed and their rights violated since the 1960’s. Yet in many cases, have allowed it to happen. How much longer will we allow the thuggery of the left to go unchallenged??
I remember that show, it was hard to figure out when it was playing because they kept putting it in different time slots.
Rush’s brief TV show was produced by none other than Roger Ailes. Yes, the same Ailes who pitched Fox News Channel to Rupert Murdoch/News Corp.
I wouldn’t mind see him do an hour on, say, Sunday night. He could probably afford his own TV network now.
When Rush was on TV I was still a Democrat and he made other Democrats furious. I would catch a few minutes of his TV show when I was in a hotel lobby or whatever in bits and pieces and had to admit he was good and over the course of several years began realizing he was right (Right!). But I have a life and could never imagine devoting time to sit and watch a TV show about politics, then or now. I suspect Rush realized this even then and together with the other "down side" problems mentioned above (poor return for effort, especially) and it just isn't worth it. I think he is right in this. His message gets far wider hearing the way it is. God Bless Rush.
Simple he doesnt want to do it. If the democrats get their way and he gets kicked off the radio maybe he will consider doing TV again