In the town I live in, Independence Day festivities are largely pushed back a week in order not to compete with a neighboring town's events.  It's regional cooperation at work, but it means that local fireworks displays come a bit late.  Normal recourse in this situation is found on television, as it probably is in the big city, too, should drought or budgets prohibit large-scale or even family fireworks.

While the Pops concert itself began at 8:30pm in Boston, CBS didn't start its telecast until 10pm--opting instead to air detective shows in the meantime.  Why?

On Wednesday, the 4th, the annual Boston Pops concert appeared to step off the cliff it's been approaching in recent years.  In conjunction with its television partner this year, CBS, the Pops decided to show itself for only fifteen minutes or so, after which it disappeared behind special guest John Mellencamp.  Within another ten minutes, the orchestra vanished completely, with the last half-hour of the "Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular" consisting of recorded modern pop & rock tunes playing while fireworks exploded.

What happened to the orchestra?  Did the rain sour its spirits and drive it out of the protective band-shell?  Did it leave in protest over being made to play second-fiddle to Mellencamp?  Did CBS get impatient and cut it off for some reason?  At the end of the program, one simply couldn't know what happened, as the final shot showed host Craig Ferguson thanking conductor Keith Lockhart within a very tight frame.  Was the camera hiding an absent orchestra?  

By comparing various timetables, it seems that the Boston Pops concert was just about over by the time the live CBS telecast began.  Two days earlier, the Boston Herald's Laurel J. Sweet reported that the concert itself would start at 8:30pm, Eastern Time, with fireworks starting at 10:30.  Yet the CBS telecast--again, live--wasn't scheduled to start until 10pm, ET.

That explains why viewers saw, on TV, one of the Pops' traditionally final tunes performed...first.  Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," the rousing tune with blasting cannon, somehow kicked off the telecast, noted high-definition tv fan Mike Cohen.  In addition to poor audio production for the later segments, Cohen points out a clue to the odd telecast:

Normally I have watched this on A&E [...].

Could the CBS network itself be the explanation for the late 10pm start time, when compared with different networks, with different missions, in prior years?

Clearly, CBS could have started the broadcast promptly at 8:30pm, since Boston TV viewers got to see just that.  TV critic site Television Without Pity contains a round-up of Wednesday's holiday programming, in which poster Inquisitionist writes:

The local broadcast of the Boston Pops from 8:30 to 10:00 was much better than what aired nationally on CBS from 10:00 onwards. It had wonderful performances by the children's choir, Blue Man Group, John Mellencamp and the orchestra itself.

What gives, then, if a full broadcast is technically possible, yet is replaced with a few minutes of the Pops, a few minutes of Mellencamp, and then--for the portion of the show no longer featuring live musicians--a fireworks display touted on-air as "uninterrupted by commercials?"

One wonders if CBS only agreed to broadcast the Pops if it were allowed to work in aspects that would supposedly guarantee younger audiences.  The Boston Pops would have to consent to this, and according to WBUR reporter Deb Becker, the organization is already focused on its patrons' ages and pocketbooks:

The average age of patrons is 51. And the parent Boston Symphony Orchestra was reportedly almost 1 million dollars in the red in 2005 and its summer home in Tanglewood loses 2 to 3 million dollars a year. Even volunteers at Tanglewood now have to pay 75 dollars for the privilege.

In her radio story (5:36) with Pops conductor Lockhart, Becker asks if there's a danger of "shooting for the middle and not pleasing anybody."  Lockhart admits that danger and responds:

[...] I think what we try to do, is shoot for the extremities in different directions, maybe totally leaving out the middle in the process.

Just a week earlier, Lockhart told Victoria Welch at Bostonist.com about the process for selecting John Mellencamp as a guest performer:

I think the general way it works for Fourth of July is that there are a lot of different constituencies - CBS and the like - so there are lists that are passed around. "These are the people we're happy with." John's been on the list for a few years now, because I think it's very heartland.

The scattershot affair broadcast on Wednesday night is thus explained.  With many masters to serve, Lockhart and the Pops organization may simply not control their own concerts--and perhaps have even lost the right to appear in them.  Not content any longer with the orchestra itself performing--in some way--for all or even the majority of the telecast bearing its name, CBS and apparently the Boston Pops, too, decided to target the older, middle and younger audience with three different and disparate forms of music:  rousing marches, rock n' roll and pre-taped modern pop.    

It's too bad the assembled musicians of the Boston Pops couldn't have remained center stage for the national broadcast.  They might very well draw the line at the "Don'tcha Wish Your Girlfriend Was Hot Like Me" Suite in B Minor, but, barring that predicament, the Pops would probably play all kinds of tunes rather than face pre-recorded pre-emption.  Was the orchestra even given that choice by CBS and its own executives on Wednesday?

Unfortunately, satire can't keep up with real life in this instance.  In the July 2007 issue of Boston Magazine, writer Joe Keohane fantasizes in a wicked, yet urgent essay that a coup from within could save the Pops from causing its own eclipse.  He laments over last year's 4th of July concert, saying:

It couldn’t have been more grotesque if they’d recruited Jessica and Ashlee Simpson to reenact the Lincoln-Douglas debates against strains of “God Bless America” played on PVC piping by the Blue Man Group.

In real life, national viewers of Wednesday's concert didn't see the three dyed guys, but lo and behold, before the CBS network turned on its cameras at 10pm, local Boston viewers and the 500,000 + in attendance were treated to a performance by, yes, Blue Man Group.  Can lip-synchers be far behind?