daytime shows airing out of pattern

[chris12]

From looking at some of the retro listings as well as the tv guides I bought at the time it seemed that lots of shows especially on NBC were airing all over the place. How many of you had stations that aired shows at many different times such as late afternoon or early morning. Even in Chicago a few examples happened on o&os. From Jnauray 1982-June 1986 WBBM 2 brought Donahue from channel 9 and aired it at 9 am. What they then did was put the One Day at a Time/$25,000 Pyramid and Alice/Child's Play/Press Your Luck/Card Sharks from 10-11, Tattletales/Body Language/Press Your Luck at 11 and Price Is Right at 3 pm when the more sensible thing would have been putting the 9-10 shows on at 3. Also, WMAQ 5 for a while in the fall 1987 put Wink Martindale's High Rollers at 10 am pushing Wheel to 3:30. Then in the early 90s they put talk shows like Sally Jessy Rafael, Jenny Jones, Jerry Springer at 1 pm and 2 pm pushing back the last year of Snta Barbara, Days of Our Lives, Anothe World and other shows.

 

[genius]

It wasn't an uncommon thing for a station to run network daytime programs out-of pattern in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s. It mainly depended what was aired-usually a high-rated syndicated program or popular local program would win out over a low-rated soap. This type of approach caused the deaths of many soaps, most notably Edge of Night, Search For Tomorrow, and Ryan's Hope, though the last one was mostly due to an ABC screw-up of programming. Of course O&Os weren't not immune to this; I worked at one(KCNC, when it was NBC O&O in the early 90s) and we aired Days of our Lives at 3PM. I should note at some point in the 90s NBC stations were able to air the soaps and Leeza at any time without delay.

When I worked for in advertising in the daytime division in LA, KCBS aired Guiding Light a day-behind in the morning. I believe they were the first major CBS station to do so, and later put it back, but that hasn't stopped WCBS, WBBM, KYW, WBZ, WJZ etc. from doing so as well within the last decade.

Alas, the era of daytime pre-emptions and airing out-of pattern at the network level is over for the most part, as there is so few hours to program these days. But of course there are exceptions. The several CBS stations who as I mentioned did air Guiding Light a day-behind now are the first to air it as they have the 10AM feed, so I guess they might not be considered out of pattern. Some CT ABC stations air All My Children on one-day delay at 11AM in favor of a noon newscast, which is the same for MT CBS stations who air As The World Turns one day behind, most notably KRQE in Albuquerque and O&O KUTV in Salt Lake City.

 

[dustintv]

Well I guess you could say the practice still continues to this day with they putting Guiding Light at 10 instead of three in favor of Doctor Phil and Rachel Ray...

 

[genius]

Well I guess you could say the practice still continues to this day with they putting Guiding Light at 10 instead of three in favor of Doctor Phil and Rachel Ray...

Well when stations like WCBS, WYOU etc. first began airing Guiding Light a day behind those shows had yet to air. The show was being beaten badly by General Hospital in those northeast markets that are more favorable towards ABC(NYC, Philly to name a few). By putting Guiding Light on at 10 it did slightly help the ratings in some of those cities for the program. In the past soap operas that have aired in the morning hours usually die out fast, but Guiding Light hasn't, and now that the show's national ratings are fairly consistent and recently higher than at least two of the ABC soaps on a national level, the show shouldn't be going away, at least not in the immediate future.

But you are correct with Rachel Ray and the schedule changes with WTVF in Nashville that happened back in September.

 

[bpatrick]

Putting Rachael Ray on WTVF allowed two CBS soaps to
begin airing in pattern, and it did not affect Guiding
Light, which was already airing in Nashville at 2 PM (CT).

Prior to the addition of Rachael Ray's show WTVF was
showing:

11 AM News
11:30 Young And The Restless (not many Central Time
Zone stations do this, but it does follow the
East Coast)
12:30 Talk Of The Town (local)
1:30 Bold And The Beautiful (one-hour delay)
2 PM Guiding Light
3 PM As The World Turns (two-hour delay)

Now, WTVF's schedule looks like this:

11 AM Talk Of The Town
11:30 Young And The Restless
12:30 Bold And The Beautiful
1 PM As The World Turns
2 PM Guiding Light
3 PM Rachael Ray

All CBS soaps now air in pattern in Nashville;
The Price Is Right also airs in pattern at 10 AM.
Not everyone in Music City was happy about
the changes; ATWT had been on at 3 for about
20 years and many viewers watched One Life To
Live at 1 and ATWT at 3; now they have to make
a choice.

I believe that the only daytime show out of pattern
in Nashville now is Days Of Our Lives on WSMV.
Passions airs at 1, Days at 2, IIRC.

It's not likely that any Southern stations (except
Orlando and Miami, which aren't really "southern"
markets) will move Guiding Light to the mornings; it's
still pretty strong in this part of the country, which
tends to be CBS-friendly anyway.

 

[fortmill]

WRAL/5 in Raleigh/Durham shows "The Young and Restless" at 4PM, up against Oprah on ABC11. It leads in to 5's top rated news block at 5PM. To take the place of Y&R at 12:30, 5 adds an extra half hour of local noon news and "Insider" at 1PM.

 

[genius]

Putting Rachael Ray on WTVF allowed two CBS soaps to
begin airing in pattern, and it did not affect Guiding
Light, which was already airing in Nashville at 2 PM (CT).

LOL, I kind of forget the details there, even though we had discussed it on the other board.

 

[bpatrick]

WRAL/5 in Raleigh/Durham shows "The Young and Restless" at 4PM, up against Oprah on ABC11. It leads in to 5's top rated news block at 5PM. To take the place of Y&R at 12:30, 5 adds an extra half hour of local noon news and "Insider" at 1PM.

Likewise, WLKY/32 in Louisville also runs Y&R at 4, up against Oprah on WHAS/11, and 32's
5 PM news is number one, although WHAS's newscast wins 5:30 and 6. All of the big three
(WAVE, WHAS, and WLKY) do an hour of news at noon. At 1, WAVE has "Days Of Our Lives,"
WHAS has "All My Children," and I believe WLKY has "Access Hollywood."

A few years ago WXIA/11 Alive in Atlanta ran "Days Of Our Lives" at 4 and gave Oprah on
WSB/2 a good run for her ratings. 11's news ratings suffered when they moved "Days" back
to 1 PM; they've since dropped their 5 PM news and run Dr. Phil at that time.

 

[Kurt Toy]

At various times, in the '60s, 70s, and 80s, KDKA-TV Pittsburgh showed "As The World Turns" [when they weren't otherwise pre-empting it] out of pattern, from '64-67, Channel 2 aired it either at 4:30 PM, 11:00, or 10:30, usually bumping whatever sitcom rerun CBS showed in its morning lineup to a different slot, in '71, the station ran ATWT at 4:00, and in '81 it ran the soap at 9:00 AM.

 

[bpatrick]

I remember KDKA's running "Pittsburgh 2Day" in ATWT's
slot, and I seem to recall one period when WPGH/53 ran
ATWT in the network time slot.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

Aside from when CBS affiliates run the afternoon shows out-of-pattern (and not counting GL's alternate 10am showing), the CBS afternoon lineup will mark 20 years this coming March that it has stayed the same.

12:30 Young and The Restless: June 1981 (moved from 1pm as "Search for Tomorrow" moved to 2:30 for its last days on CBS)
1:30 Bold and the Beautiful: March 1987 (debut)
2:00 As the World Turns: March 1987 (moved from 1:30 to make room for B&B debut)
3:00 Guiding Light: February 1980 (moved from 2:30 to make room for Y&R's hour expansion)

Although Y&R expanded to an hour in February 1980, it's interesting to wonder what might have been: as per the June 23-29, 1979 TVG that I have, they reported Y&R as expanding to an hour in the fall of '79 at 12:30pm and the reruns of "M*A*S*H" being replaced (it was going to syndication that fall anyway) for "Search for Tomorrow" to move in at 3:30.

 

[bpatrick]

Procter & Gamble didn't even like it when CBS moved "Search For
Tomorrow" to 2:30, since it had been on at 12:30 ever since it
debuted in 1951. True, there had been some decline in "Search"'s
ratings, but one factor in its move to NBC in 1982 was the Peacock
Network's willingness to run it at the traditional time. It really didn't
matter; "Search" suffered from a weaker network and affiliate pre-emptions
(I remember Channel 11 in Atlanta running it at 10:30 AM so they could
run their local "Noonday" from 12-1), and was finally canceled in 1986.

BTW, with the demise of the Ray Combs version of "Family Feud" in
1984, the entire CBS daytime lineup hasn't changed in 12 years; "The
Price Is Right" is still on at 11, where it's been since 1979.

 

[mjlarochelle]

This was a very common practice in Canada for both CBC and CTV. CBC O&O stations generally adhered to a single schedule, but other affiliates aired programs all over the place outside primetime. Midday aired at noon on the CBC network, but some affiliates were known to air it at 2 PM. Shows like Mr. Dressup and Friendly Giant were at completely erratic times from one affiliate to another. All My Children may have been the only daytime show on CBC that was shown at the same time across the whole network in the mid-80s. Basically it appears CBC merely provided a slate of shows to its affiliates, and let them air them at any time they pleased. That is still the case to some degree today; the one-hour CBC News Morning airs at 6 AM on the O&O stations but airs at a later time on some affiliates.

CTV affiliates tended more to air shows at the same time as other affiliates, but there were regional differences in some cases. Generally this was to accomdate local programming.

 

[bpatrick]

I need to correct myself (I'm surprised nobody caught it):
CBS canceled Ray Combs' "Family Feud" in 1994, not
1984 (Richard Dawson was still hosting "Feud" on ABC
in '84, IIRC). I inadvertently hit the wrong key and
didn't catch my mistake until just now. But the rest
of what I said goes; CBS hasn't made a change in
its daytime lineup since. Sorry for the error.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

I caught your error, but I knew exactly what you meant so it wasn't really an issue at all and not worth correcting.

ABC also has CBS beat as well - could be *30* years without a change in their schedule in January 2008 (assuming nothing changes) from 1pm-4pm (EST). IIRC, since January 16, 1978 - that's when OLTL and GH expanded from their odd 45 minute shows (OLTL at 2:30-3:15, GH from 3:15-4) to a full hour, making the AMC @ 1, OLTL @ 2, GH @ 3 schedule they have now.

The 45-minute soap concept, minus 5 minutes, would be revisited in summer '84 when AMC, OLTL, and GH all ran 40 minutes apiece from 2pm-4pm for the duration of the Olympics.

 

[bpatrick]

True for the soaps, but ABC has made at least two changes in its
overall daytime schedule in the last ten years: adding The View in
1997 and canceling Port Charles in 2003 (I think Loving, or in its
later guise, The City, was also canceled in '97). Again, I have
to emphasize that CBS has not made a change to its overall
daytime schedule since 1994 (unless you count the addition of
the morning feed of Guiding Light).

Elsewhere on the board, I've just posted an Atlanta/Chattanooga/
Macon schedule from the Atlanta edition of TV Guide for Tuesday,
September 6, 1977. The following shows are out of pattern:

WSB Ch. 2 (NBC) Hollywood Squares (9 AM instead of 10:30)
Shoot For The Stars (9:30 AM instead of 12 Noon)
Chico And The Man (pre-empted at 12:30)
The Gong Show (pre-empted at both feeds, 1 PM
and 4 PM)

WRCB Ch. 3 (NBC) Shoot For The Stars (pre-empted)
Chico And The Man (pre-empted)
(They carried The Gong Show at 1.)

WAGA Ch. 5 (CBS) Young And The Restless (1 PM instead of 12 Noon)
Match Game '77 (pre-empted at 3:30)
Tattletales (pre-empted at 4 PM)

WTVC Ch. 9 (ABC) The Edge Of Night (10:30 AM instead of 4 PM)

WXIA Ch. 11 (ABC) The Edge Of Night (10:30 AM instead of 4 PM)
The Better Sex (pre-empted at 12 Noon)
$20,000 Pyramid (pre-empted at 2 PM)

WDEF Ch. 12 (CBS) Young And The Restless (1 PM instead of 12 Noon)

WMAZ Ch. 13 (CBS) Here's Lucy (pre-empted at 10 AM)
Tattletales (pre-empted at 4 PM)

BTW, thanks for not making a big thing about my mistake, and with that,
I'll drop that particular subject.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

Was noon the "official" time for Y&R until its hour expansion?

WHP-21 in Harrisburg carried Y&R at noon until, I believe, June or July of 1979. It was replaced by "Get Smart" reruns at noon, and Y&R moved one hour ahead at 1pm (which, in turn, displaced reruns of "Love, American Style"). In the fall of '79, "Love of Life" moved from the 4pm timeslot to noon, where it stayed until February 1980 when Y&R expanded to an hour and LoL was cancelled.

 

[genius]

Yes, from its start in 1973 until 1980 CBS usually had Young and the Restless aired at Noon. The late Bell held out as late as possible to expand his show to an hour because he liked the 1/2 hour format better. I believe the soap schedule(on Eastern time) looked liked this in early 1979:

11:30 Love of Life
12:00 Young and the Restless
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
1:30 As The World Turns
2:30 Guiding Light

As you said, Love of Life was cancelled in its 4PM timeslot in February 1980. Poor show, it has been CBS' flagship soap, first daytime show to use profanity, was the first soap to grace the cover of Soap Opera Digest, and it was where Christopher Reeve was starring right before becoming Superman.

(In these years were discussing ABC became King of Daytime as we all know. By 1983, there weren't anymore! Guiding Light was the highest rated show on CBS at the time and proved to be a tough competitor for General Hospital, infact hitting #1 in the ratings for a period of time in '84. For Young and the Restless, ratings started up when more people were tuning to see Victor, Nikki, Jack etc. over Snapper, Lauralee, Leslie etc. Bell had successfully re-invented his soap. As The World Turns, while having lost its #1 crown, saw 20 million viewers tune in for Meg Ryan's character's wedding. Just some FYI).

 

[bpatrick]

True. "Y&R"'s in-pattern time slot was 12 Noon
until it went to an hour. Bill Bell's reluctance to
expand the show is not unlike his son Brad's
reluctance to expand "Bold And The Beautiful,"
since he, too, is happy with the half-hour format.

WFMY Greensboro did the same thing as WHP
when "Love Of Life" moved to 4 PM; they put it
on at noon (so people wouldn't get out of the habit
of watching, I suppose, since it had been airing at
11:30 AM) and moved "Y&R" to 1. But by that time,
"Love Of Life" was suffering the fate of its sister soap
"The Secret Storm" (both were owned for years by
American Home Products) a few years earlier: too many
cast changes, storylines that viewers didn't buy into,
and affiliate pre-emptions (after the move to 4).

BTW, "Love Of Life" was the second CBS soap to strike
gold; it premiered September 24, 1951, three weeks after
"Search For Tomorrow." But as the leadoff show in the
CBS soap block for most of the years it was on, it's fair
to say it was CBS's "flagship" soap.