Having already done more interviews than his two predecessors combined at this point in their administrations, the president is set to double-down on the “all Obama all the time” strategy this weekend with a record five Sunday talk-show interviews.

But these latest television appearances come on the heels of President Barack Obama’s prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress and a high-profile speech on Wall Street.

With many of these appearances offering little “new” news and more of the same sales pitch, some are left wondering whether Obama fatigue could soon set in, threatening the president’s ambitious agenda of overhauling the financial and health-care systems and installing a cap-and-trade system.

“If you dilute it to the point of people are like, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s on the TV again,’ they are going to start changing the channel,” said Dana Perino, a White House press secretary under President George W. Bush and chief issues counselor at public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller.

After seven months in office, President Obama had done 114 overall interviews, compared to 37 by his predecessor George W. Bush and 41 by former President Bill Clinton at the same point in their tenures, according to Martha Joynt Kumar, a political science professor at Towson University.

Following his record-setting appearances on Sunday, which includes an interview with Univision, Obama is set to appear on Monday on CBS’s (CBS) “Late Night with David Letterman,” which draws more than 3 million viewers.

Asked by reporters at a press briefing on Friday about the threat of overexposure, Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, said people aren’t going to tune him out.

“People want to hear from the president about the choices we have,” said Gibbs. “I think it’s important the president continue to speak to a host of different audiences to reach as many people as possible to speak about the benefits of health care.”  

Message Control

But it’s not just that Obama has made an unusually high number of media appearances, it’s that the message of late has been the same or a similar sales pitch for an overhaul of the health-care system. At the same time, he hasn’t come out strongly for or against the controversial public option, despite the Democrats’ super-majority in Congress.

“He isn’t taking any new positions on specific proposals. I think that’s because he’s trying remain flexible. It sounds more like platitudes,” said Perino.   

Timothy Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University, said he wouldn’t be surprised if people lose attention if the president doesn’t make any “new” news.

“If things are changing then people are still interested. Celebrities get extraordinary amounts of attention, partly because there’s always something interesting that happens,” said Calkins. “It’s when it’s the same thing that happens again and again that people get tired of it.”

 In Obama’s case, it’s been the same message but also one that has received a skeptical audience.

“If you’re popular and selling policies that people like, then you can’t get too much exposure. If you’re unpopular and you’re selling policies people don’t like, even a little exposure is too much,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Presidential Headliner

“President Obama has enormous appeal so that helps him a lot. That’s why to date, people are still tuning in and people are still interested,” said Calkins.

Indeed, the President has shown an unparalleled ability to draw huge audiences. An appearance earlier this year on “The Tonight Show” on General Electric’s (GE) NBC gave Jay Leno his best ratings in four years and an audience on CBS’s “60 Minutes” landed the program its best viewership in a decade.

However, those numbers appear to be slipping, suggesting the strategy may not be working. According to Nielsen Media Research, last week’s 8 p.m. EDT speech to Congress drew 32 million viewers, 38.7% fewer than his 9 p.m. EDT address on Feb. 24 to Congress that attracted an audience of 52 million Americans.

“He’s losing audience. Where were those other people? They obviously didn’t think they were going to learn anything from watching,” said Sabato.

And more importantly, the efforts don’t appear to be producing a sizable lift in support for the health-care overhaul. A new FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll shows 38% favor health care reform legislation now, up from 34% in August. But opposition remains high, falling from 49% last month to 48% now.

“I don’t know if there’s such a thing as Obama fatigue. But what they should be worried about is declining approval for him and his policies -- not whether he’s getting too many or too few media appearances,” said Sabato.

Breaking Through Media Saturation

It’s tough to compare Obama’s media blitz strategy to his predecessors’ strategies because of today’s 24/7 cable news and Internet world that can muddle or distract the message.

“How else are you going to get it done? You’ve got to explain it. You don’t want anyone explaining it for you. You don’t want Joe Wilson explaining it for you,” said Kumar, alluding to the South Carolina lawmaker who nearly stole the show at Obama’s Congressional speech by shouting “You lie!”

Kumar also noted that the appearances on the Sunday talk shows tend to draw “political junkies,” so they may not make the average American sick of seeing Obama. Then again, NBC’s top-rated “Meet the Press” draws more than 3 million viewers each week alone.

President Obama isn’t the only one who has to worry about message control as many companies must adapt before their marketing strategies go stale.

“We know messages do wear out over time and they begin to lose their impact,” said Calkins. “The hard part is that it’s very difficult to determine at what point you’ve worn out the message.”

Unlike those companies, the President does have a high likeability rating to fall back on, which helps explain why he draws big audiences and sells magazines and books. But at the end of the day, Sabato says, his high personal ratings won’t be enough to sell his policies.

“Just because you like somebody doesn’t mean you are going to side with them against your own interests. We all have friends we like but we disagree with. We act in our self-interest,” said Sabato.

It’s not clear if President Obama’s media blitz will ultimately prevail before fatigue sets in. If it does work, it could provide a playbook for future administrations in today’s 24/7 media world. If not, other presidents could take a page out of President Ronald Reagan’s playbook.

President Reagan “would disappear often for four or five weeks,” said Sabato. “Maybe when a president isn’t out there all the time, they blame other people.”