Grab the popcorn and the Red Vines (Twizzlers, if you’re on the East Coast), put up your feet, and prepare to get excited–it’s the primetime Jan 6 hearings, broadcast live Thursday at 8 pm Eastern on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC. Fox News is choosing to stick to its regular lineup, which makes sense because its evening shows often pull in over 3 million viewers each.

No word on if there will be a halftime show, or if Beyonce has agreed to perform in it.

Skip your plans to go see “Top Gun: Maverick” because this hearing might be even more exciting. You won’t be bored – as my colleague Jeff Charles reported, the committee has turned to the talents of former ABC News president James Goldston to produce the hearing, as if it “were a blockbuster investigative special” which will be “raw enough so that skeptical journalists will find the material fresh, and chew over the disclosures in future coverage.”

Who’s going to star in this Hollywood-style spectacular? The committee has been tight-lipped about its witnesses, but rumors abound that videotaped testimony of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump will be shown. It’s also widely expected they will feature extensive, never-before-seen videos of the events inside and outside the Capitol.

The real question is: will there be any new information, and will it implicate Trump? As we reported, committee member Adam Schiff, D-CA, promises that “a great deal” of new evidence will be offered. He’s failed to deliver on such promises so many times in the past, though, it’s hard to give him any credence.

During tomorrow’s hearing and in the ones to follow, we’ll show how close we came to losing our democracy.

And why it’s still deeply at risk.

We’ll provide details of the effort to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.

And what we must do to protect our democracy now.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 8, 2022

Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig certainly is excited:

“I think, Nicolle, you are going to see some bombshells that day,” Leonnig told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace. “I applaud my colleagues who have been reporting on this curtain-raiser for the hearings to come. The one that will be led and focused on Donald Trump, I understand, will have a lot of Donald Trump’s own words as relayed by witnesses, as relayed by Donald Trump himself, people who were at his shoulder. And, so, you will see a kind of a split-screen. What was happening on the capitol at the same moment as what was happening inside the White House with Donald Trump.”

Meanwhile Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, is making really big promises, saying the hearings will “blow the roof off the House.” That’s a big (and violent-sounding) boast, but we’ll see if he can deliver.

Another question is: why are they even holding this hearing? (They’re also holding more in the future, possibly up to 8, but those won’t be aired in primetime. Be still my beating heart.) Jeff Charles has an answer:

The hearings are nothing more than a last-ditch effort for Democrats to win some political points before receiving the shellacking that is coming during the midterm elections.

Yeah, that about sums it up. MSNBC disagrees though, asking themselves a rhetorical question: “How necessary is all of this?” Their profound answer: “By some measures, little matters more.”

Tell that to moms struggling to find baby formula.

Despite all the breathless headlines and excited news anchors, the hearings appear to be nothing more than political theater designed and produced to raise the country’s temperature once again, and “get” Donald Trump. It’s hard to imagine any blockbuster new information coming out, because A) if such evidence existed, it surely would have leaked, and B) we already saw plenty of footage and evidence in Trump’s second impeachment trial. The main difference here is that, unlike the impeachment trial, there will be no Republican pushback because Trump-hater Liz Cheney, “R”-WY, and the constantly-crying Adam Kinzinger, “R”-IL, are the only GOPers on the committee.

While I don’t condone the actions of some on January 6, and I think those who attacked police should face the music, I don’t see how this over-hyped committee hearing helps the country–when we have so much else to worry about right now, like inflation, war, and skyrocketing crime. I don’t know that a lot of people wake up and immediately start worrying about January 6.

The Democrats and their lapdog media friends have put a lot on the line for this, and if it doesn’t deliver blockbuster information and high ratings, it will be considered a failure.

I’d say there’s a good chance they end up with egg on their faces.