It came down to the wire, but “CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley will sit down with President Obama before the Super Bowl on Sunday. Pelley’s interview will air live at 4:30 PM, in advance of the big game.
Earlier this month we spoke to Pelley at a CBS press conference on the Super Bowl, and the anchor told us that the White House was yet to confirm the interview.
“I would be surprised if they didn’t take advantage of this remarkable opportunity for the President to speak to one third of the people of this country at one time,” Pelley said, noting that the interview “comes around like Christmas.”
Indeed, it has been a long-standing tradition for the President to sit down with an anchor from the network that is broadcasting the Super Bowl that year. CBS last aired the Super Bowl in 2010, when Katie Couric interviewed the President.
The network gets an interview with the most powerful man in the world, and the President gets to speak to an enormous audience that only the biggest event in TV can deliver.
President Obama has actually already given three interviews in the last week. On Sunday he appeared on CBS newsmagzine “60 Minutes,” alongside outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and last night he spoke to Telemundo and Univision about immigration reform.