The NBA is preempting everything on Christmas day on ABC. No news at 6pm on any ABC station.
And Christmas Day, a lot of stations throughout the country are letting their morning, noon, or even evening news teams take the day/night off.
It must have been very briefly because I always remember "Sale Of The Century" being on Channel 36. Here's an oddity from the days when Channel 2 was still the NBC affiliate; it didn't carry the daytime "Gong Show" (Channel 36 did) but did carry the nighttime version Fridays at 7:30. 11 Alive did, IIRC, carry the Bill Cullen "Blockbusters"; it might not have seen the light of day on Channel 2, because "Blockbusters" was on at 10:30 AM, in the middle of Mike Douglas' show on 2.
Somebody mentioned "Press Your Luck" not being carried in Memphis; WSPA/7 Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville didn't pick it up until after Michael Larson's $110,237 win (must have been all the publicity), and at one point turned down the Bob Eubanks "Card Sharks," which replaced "PYL" at 10:30 AM, in favor of "Wipeout." Coincidentally or not, the host of both "PYL" and "Wipeout" was Peter Tomarken. WSPA was good about carrying "Tattletales" at 4; it was usually the only network show airing in that slot (WFBC/WYFF carried "Somerset" at 1 or not at all, and WLOS pre-empted "Edge Of Night"); in fact, before "Tattletales," it was one of a few CBS stations in the Carolinas to continue to carry "Secret Storm" at 4 (WFMY, WNCT, and WBTW also did), even though that soap was doomed.
WAND (NBC-17.1) Decatur, IL (Springfield/Decatur/Champaign DMA) preempted all NBC ice skating coverage today (Sunday, Jan. 27) for:
11:30-12:30: "Mecum Auto Auctions"
12:30-1:00: "The Auction at Graceland"
1:00-2:00: Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures
2:00-5:00: United Cerebral Palsy Telethon (local only, UCP hasn't had national telethon in about 25 years--in fact, this year is the last year of the local telethon due to online giving)
NBC resumes locally after the 5PM news with Nightly News at 5:30.
2:00-5:00: United Cerebral Palsy Telethon (local only, UCP hasn't had national telethon in about 25 years--in fact, this year is the last year of the local telethon due to online giving)
To make more revenue. When they preempt, they make all the advertising money and don't have to split it with the network. Up until perhaps the late 60's, it was not uncommon for network affiliates (not O&Os) to even preempt a network show in prime time to run their own local show, or movie. They didn't dare do it more than once or twice a week, but it happened.
Was WLOS picketed for not airing Dark Shadows? The reason i ask is that they dropped the show in 1967 and re-cleared it in early 1968(very likely because people picketed the station because it was pre-empted for Dennis The Menace, but they later cleared the show in early 1968.