President Joe Biden declined an offer to tape an interview that would air in the hours before the Super Bowl on Feb. 11, CBS confirmed on Saturday. “We hope viewers enjoy watching what they tuned in for—the game,” a White House spokesperson told Variety in a statement. It marks the second year in a row that Biden has chosen to sit out the pre-Super Bowl presidential interview—a tradition that dates back only to 2009—following last year’s decision to scrap an appearance on Fox. Biden advisers told CNN that the move is a strategic decision to allow American audiences a political breather—and that the interview would not have aired during peak viewership hours for CBS, anyway. The Super Bowl is one of the most watched telecasts of the year, with 2023’s game drawing more than 115 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. In comparison, Biden’s last pregame interview, in 2021 with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, was caught by about 10.2 million viewers, The New York Times reported.
