TV stations preempting network shows

[vdeane]

KQTV-TV, Ch. 2 in St. Joseph, MO, would, in the mid 90's, tape delay ABC's Saturday Morning showing of the Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show (Which aired at 9-10AM CT Saturdays at that time.) for a hour long newscast. The show would air at 5:30-6:30AM on, I think, Sunday morning.

Speaking of that time block (mostly... I watched ABC on Saturday morning during the first two One Saturday Morning years, so it was 10:30-11:30 unless things were shifted around to accommodate sports), I didn't even know that Bugs Bunny was aired as part of ABC's Saturday morning cartoons because WHAM in Rochester put Bill Nye and Popular Mechanics in that timeslot instead.

[hbelkins]

Back in the days before the SEC Network and the like, colleges and conferences developed their own networks of local affiliates. There was an official "University of Kentucky Sports Network" of local stations in markets like Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, Huntington/Charleston, etc., that would broadcast certain UK home games on a live or delayed basis. This crossed network lines, as the Lexington UK affiliate was a CBS station and the Huntington affiliate was an NBC station. When conference season started, there was a "TVS Network" that carried SEC "games of the week" on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons.

These all preempted network shows. Sometimes those shows would air on a delayed basis; other times you were SOL if you wanted to watch a network show.

[Sctvhound]

It was routine pretty much anywhere outside of the major, major cities as late as 2019.

The ACC was the last major conference to do syndication of games. In my area the My Network TV affiliate (which few watch) carried the basketball games, but football would usually air on our local CBS, preempting whatever they were showing.

In South Carolina you'd get ACC and SEC games on local channels. Some weeks you'd get 6-8 games OTA between the 2 leagues.

SM-G998U

[bandit957]

I remember one of the shows that was most commonly seen to replace preempted programming was 'Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom'.

[tmoore952]

Until the writers' strike ended a week or two ago, ABC affiliates were airing Monday Night Football (which normally airs on ESPN) to fill the programming gap. At least here in the DC area, that meant they preempted Jeopardy. On the plus side, they did air Jeopardy late at night and in today's world, a DVR will pick up on the schedule change and record it so you can watch later. On the downside, at least once football ran long, so the shows after football were delayed and the DVR only recorded part of Jeopardy (the YouTube TV cloud-based DVR doesn't allow for padding the record time the way a hard-drive-based DVR does for technical reasons).

I dislike preseason football for that reason. Jeopardy! on the DC ABC affiliate gets preempted for Baltimore Ravens preseason football. The NBC affiiate shows Washington Commanders preseason football. The worst is that one night, every year, when Baltimore plays Washington in preseason football. Both stations show the game, with each team's own announcers and perspective (take your pick).

The other time Jeopardy! gets preempted and pushed until late night is if there are bad storms with possible and/or sighted tornadoes. This occurred several times towards the end of James Holzhauer's long run on Jeopardy! a few years ago. This I understand, although it is difficult when the area that is under siege weather wise is 100 miles from you.

I seem to recall, when Jeopardy! was pushed into the wee hours, that it came on at either (something like) 2:07 AM or 3:07 AM (everything starts at :07 and :37 after the 11 PM late local news runs for 35 minutes).

[ErmineNotyours]

In high school in suburban Seattle, I had a teacher who recently moved in from Utah.  He said that he would be watching a tense action scene on TV, and then the screen would go black.  I figured he must be kidding; there wouldn't be this kind of censorship in the United States.  A few decades later I heard about KSL, which would have been a CBS affiliate back then.  They have preempted many shows as an NBC affiliate, such as Saturday Night Live.  Back in my high school days, and maybe today too, Mountain Time Zone stations started prime time at 7:00 and would all individually tape delay the shows themselves from the Eastern feed, and that gave them time to preview the shows and black out scenes they felt were inappropriate.

[bandit957]

In high school in suburban Seattle, I had a teacher who recently moved in from Utah.  He said that he would be watching a tense action scene on TV, and then the screen would go black.  I figured he must be kidding; there wouldn't be this kind of censorship in the United States.  A few decades later I heard about KSL, which would have been a CBS affiliate back then.  They have preempted many shows as an NBC affiliate, such as Saturday Night Live.  Back in my high school days, and maybe today too, Mountain Time Zone stations started prime time at 7:00 and would all individually tape delay the shows themselves from the Eastern feed, and that gave them time to preview the shows and black out scenes they felt were inappropriate.

Channel 19 in Cincinnati somehow did something similar with the 1997 'Simpsons' episode "Homer's Phobia", despite being in the Eastern Time Zone. Part of it was blacked out with a slide of the station logo.

[ErmineNotyours]

In high school in suburban Seattle, I had a teacher who recently moved in from Utah.  He said that he would be watching a tense action scene on TV, and then the screen would go black.  I figured he must be kidding; there wouldn't be this kind of censorship in the United States.  A few decades later I heard about KSL, which would have been a CBS affiliate back then.  They have preempted many shows as an NBC affiliate, such as Saturday Night Live.  Back in my high school days, and maybe today too, Mountain Time Zone stations started prime time at 7:00 and would all individually tape delay the shows themselves from the Eastern feed, and that gave them time to preview the shows and black out scenes they felt were inappropriate.

Channel 19 in Cincinnati somehow did something similar with the 1997 'Simpsons' episode "Homer's Phobia", despite being in the Eastern Time Zone. Part of it was blacked out with a slide of the station logo.

Fans have noted that The Simpsons used to run a few days early in Canada, with versions that differed from the final network version.  Maybe someone from the Cincinnati got ahold of an early version of the show for a preview.

[Henry]

Is it true that network O&O's are forbidden to preempt any of their programming for any reason other than news bulletins/severe weather reports? I've always believed that only stations owned by other companies (like Scripps, Hearst, Gray, Cox, etc.) had a right to do so, and usually it would be for local sports or reruns of old shows, like they did back in the day.

[SectorZ]

Is it true that network O&O's are forbidden to preempt any of their programming for any reason other than news bulletins/severe weather reports? I've always believed that only stations owned by other companies (like Scripps, Hearst, Gray, Cox, etc.) had a right to do so, and usually it would be for local sports or reruns of old shows, like they did back in the day.

Based on my earlier comment about WBZ, an O&O CBS affiliate running its own programming sometimes, I'm guessing they aren't forbidden on any blanket level. Maybe they're allotted x amount of hours to run their own stuff. WBZ plays Patriots pre-season football and does some stuff like local weather specials once or twice per year.

[jp the roadgeek]

I remember in the late 80's when my CBS affiliate (WFSB) used to not carry the Bob Eubanks version of Card Sharks and other CBS programming usually seen during the 10:00 hour to show Hour Magazine.  WTIC, the FOX affiliate, would carry it.  However, I remember them overlaying their own station jingle over the closing theme music.  WFSB would also pre-empt the Black Friday college football game in favor of Oprah and local news.  The reason: Gayle King worked for the station at the time.  WTNH, the ABC affiliate, would usually pick it up.  Currently, the CW affiliate doesn't carry LIV golf tour coverage; the MyNetwork affiliate does because it is owned by Nexstar, who now owns the CW. 

[triplemultiplex]

Reminds me of this:

[vdeane]

Tonight WTEN preempted Celebrity Jeopardy for their 70th anniversary special.  Looks like Celebrity Jeopardy will air at 1:30 this morning.

[Route66Fan]

In high school in suburban Seattle, I had a teacher who recently moved in from Utah.  He said that he would be watching a tense action scene on TV, and then the screen would go black.  I figured he must be kidding; there wouldn't be this kind of censorship in the United States.  A few decades later I heard about KSL, which would have been a CBS affiliate back then.  They have preempted many shows as an NBC affiliate, such as Saturday Night Live.  Back in my high school days, and maybe today too, Mountain Time Zone stations started prime time at 7:00 and would all individually tape delay the shows themselves from the Eastern feed, and that gave them time to preview the shows and black out scenes they felt were inappropriate.

Channel 19 in Cincinnati somehow did something similar with the 1997 'Simpsons' episode "Homer's Phobia", despite being in the Eastern Time Zone. Part of it was blacked out with a slide of the station logo.

I am thinking that the WXIX one was a technical difficulty & the KSL ones were intentional.

[bandit957]

I am thinking that the WXIX one was a technical difficulty & the KSL ones were intentional.

Cincinnati stations were basically like KSL, so I think the WXIX one was intentional.

[golden eagle]

I remember a large number of ABC affiliates pre-empted the first couple of seasons of NYPD Blue in 1993-94 because of its edgy (at the time) nudity and language.

WLOX in Biloxi, MS was one. Their crosstown Fox affiliate, WXXV, aired it.

[golden eagle]

Back in the days before the SEC Network and the like, colleges and conferences developed their own networks of local affiliates. There was an official "University of Kentucky Sports Network" of local stations in markets like Lexington, Louisville, Cincinnati, Huntington/Charleston, etc., that would broadcast certain UK home games on a live or delayed basis. This crossed network lines, as the Lexington UK affiliate was a CBS station and the Huntington affiliate was an NBC station. When conference season started, there was a "TVS Network" that carried SEC "games of the week" on Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons.

These all preempted network shows. Sometimes those shows would air on a delayed basis; other times you were SOL if you wanted to watch a network show.

I seem to recall some SEC basketball games being shown on a weeknight. If I'm not mistaken, it was Jefferson-Pilot (before it became Lincoln Financial) game of the week.

[Sctvhound]

Usually Wednesday nights in the SEC. The UPN station would carry the games preempting their primetime, but it usually wasn't watched by a lot of folks here.

ACC though was all over the map. Regional TV had a lot more influence. Usually the schedule was scheduled around the 2 Duke-UNC games, 1 of which Raycom always got and blacked out ESPN in ACC territory.

Most leagues went Wednesday though. We would get the "regionally" syndicated Big 12, Big East or Big Ten games on our local Comcast RSN.

The network games CBS aired were frequently blocked out locally for ACC regional games. Usually two games on a Saturday and Sundays after the Super Bowl.

SM-G998U

[hbelkins]

TVS Network became Jefferson-Pilot for the SEC games, and they were shown on Wednesday nights.

[vdeane]

Usually Wednesday nights in the SEC. The UPN station would carry the games preempting their primetime, but it usually wasn't watched by a lot of folks here.

UPN was infamous for stuff like that.  It's a large part of why Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled - especially since reruns didn't factor into the ratings at the time.

[triplemultiplex]

Usually Wednesday nights in the SEC. The UPN station would carry the games preempting their primetime, but it usually wasn't watched by a lot of folks here.

UPN was infamous for stuff like that.  It's a large part of why Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled - especially since reruns didn't factor into the ratings at the time.

Enterprise was cancelled because that dickhead Les Moonves hated scifi.