Boston Won’t Pop On National TV July 4

For the first time in more than 20 years, the July 4 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular will not be televised nationally after the CBS Television Network declined to renew a contract with the show’s producers.

Instead, reports boston.com, the performance will only appear locally on WBZ-TV, pushed out of the national market, a local organizer says, by a competing fireworks show in New York City. It marks a significant downsizing in the profile of the glitzy event — one that could make it harder to draw top stars as headliners — and comes just two months after the Marathon bombing drew the nation’s eyes to Boston.

“The rest of the country will not be able to see Boston in its finest,” said David Mugar, the show’s executive producer. “And that’s too bad — that’s a loss for the city and for our region.”

Each year, the Boston Pops concert and fireworks show brings more than a half-million people to the Charles River Esplanade, free of charge, and the broadcast was greatly valued as a way to market Boston’s appeal to the nation. Mugar said Saturday that CBS previously had signed two consecutive five-year contracts with the show, but declined to renew the contract for a third time after last year’s performance.

Ratings have flagged in recent years, he said. The broadcast company believes it will make more money showing reruns of its regular programming, he said.

Mugar has his own theory on why the show found itself on CBS Television Network’s chopping block: competition with Macy’s.

The Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks show on NBC features music and fireworks on New York City’s Hudson River, and this year will feature music stars Usher, Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon, and Tim McGraw. Macy’s, Mugar said, had long sought to push the Boston Pops concert out of the number one spot in its 10-11 p.m. time slot.

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