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Did your affiliate ever pre-empt the series premiere of a show?

D

digidan

In the summer months, new series promos start airing for the fall season. In the summer of '78, Gary Coleman was TV's promising breakout star. NBC promoted the hell of his new show "Diff'rent Strokes". On Friday, Nov 3, 1978 I tuned in to watch the premiere on NBC affiliate KYW3 in Philly, only to find it was preempted (I wish I could remember for what). I had to read about the premiere in the paper the next day, and there was no mention of it not airing in Philly. I don't know if KYW was better or worse than other affiliates, but they dropped the Tomorrow Show(before NBC canceled it) I believe they never aired David Letterman's morning show, and did not air "Late Night" in it's first year.

Does anyone know of a show's (especially a hit show) premiere that was pre-emped?
 
On one September 1983 day Washington DC's WDVM ( former WTOP today's WUSA ) channel 9 pre-empted most of the CBS Saturday morning line-up in favor of In Our Lives ( a teenage talk show ) and Saturday Magazine. They even pre-empted Charlie Brown & Snoopy. Charles Schulz was in DC that day for some reason and I guess he contacted channel 9 about it as the following week Saturday Magazine was shortened by an hour for Charlie Brown & Snoopy and Benji the dog.
 
ABC affiliates were notorious for burying the network's Friday night shows on Sunday afternoon because they could make more money showing old movies--collecting local ad revenue. In some cases, I'm sure some stations didn't even bother showing some (or all) of the shows.
 
From what I remember, this isn't a premiere, but the SERIES FINALE of The West Wing (I think it was 2006) was preempted because there was a tornado warning in Charleston. People were steamed about this because this was pre-DVR era, and they didn't have on demand like they have now. Channel 2 (the NBC) got permission from NBC to air it I believe the next Saturday.
 
I don't live in Salt Lake City, but I know KSL is famous for pre-empting programs it finds objectionable, so I wouldn't be surprised to find that they have pre-empted premieres, or even entire series.
 
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