Prosecutors fight Cosby bid to query 2,000 potential jurors

"Defendant forecasts that jury selection will take weeks; we are confident that it will not," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said, noting that it took just a day to pick jurors for the state attorney general's perjury trial last year.

Cosby, who turns 80 next month, is accused of drugging and molesting a Temple University basketball team manager at his home in 2004, an encounter he calls consensual.

Cosby, a Philadelphia native, broke racial barriers when he became the first black actor to star in a network drama, the 1965 hit "I Spy," a role that earned him three consecutive Emmy awards for best actor.