Speaking to Politico, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz threw up her hands, saying, “Once we’re on broadcast networks, they have a lot more programming issues during the week and were less willing ... we have CBS, ABC, NBC, Univision, and PBS. We have a whole bunch of different folks to talk to about settling on a date, but when my folks on staff negotiated, these were the dates that came back.”
The networks specifically don’t want to rearrange their primetime lineup to broadcast debates because shows like Scandal are highly lucrative—debates bring high ratings, but have fewer ad breaks than 30- and 60-minute shows. Ad money—not ratings, not the sanity of bloggers—is why four of the next six Democratic debates will be on Saturdays.