Back in September, the ABC affil in my market, Huntsville-Decatur-Florence (Alabama), having coming in a distant third in the 6 p.m. news ratings for a long time, decided, after almost fifty years, to pull the plug and try something different. Station management chose Jeopardy!, which had run on NBC affil WAFF since its 1984 (Trebek) inception, in varying daytime slots over the years, most recently at 12:30 p.m., following that station's Noon newscast. With Entertainment Tonight at 6:30, WAAY's new lineup marks the first time that the Huntsville-Decatur-Florence market has had a full hour of Prime Time Access since the mid-1970s, when WAFF, then WYUR and with ABC, ran local news and Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner between 5 and 6, with various syndie offerings between 6 and 7.
I have no idea about the Nielsen books (which probably haven't been published since September), but I can't help but wonder whether this is a harbinger of a trend toward third (or even fourth)-place Central Time Zone affils of the historic Big Three getting out of the 6 o'clock news race and leaving the two competitors (in some markets, three if FOX stations run news at 6) to butt heads while they counter-program. One motivation for WAAY might have been the fact that, unlike many CT markets, Jeopardy! has always been very popular with the large number of highly-educated aerospace/defense/engineering employees in the Huntsville area, much in the same way the original NBC Art Fleming version was with college students back in the Sixties. Unfortunately, for years, many of them couldn't see the show due to WAFF's scheduling it just after lunch--the closest I recall WAFF ever it airing toward PTAR was at 5 p.m., which happened during the show's second season or so, back around 1985 (then came the late '80s expansion of local news, then Oprah, and we know the rest). Everyone here, of course, knows the historic practice of ET affils usually leaving a full hour between network news and the beginning of network prime time, while CT affils only allot the 6:30 to 7 slot--something that has endured since PTAR, now formally abolished, went into effect in 1971.
To those of you who live in the CTZ, has something like this happened in recent years in your markets?
I have no idea about the Nielsen books (which probably haven't been published since September), but I can't help but wonder whether this is a harbinger of a trend toward third (or even fourth)-place Central Time Zone affils of the historic Big Three getting out of the 6 o'clock news race and leaving the two competitors (in some markets, three if FOX stations run news at 6) to butt heads while they counter-program. One motivation for WAAY might have been the fact that, unlike many CT markets, Jeopardy! has always been very popular with the large number of highly-educated aerospace/defense/engineering employees in the Huntsville area, much in the same way the original NBC Art Fleming version was with college students back in the Sixties. Unfortunately, for years, many of them couldn't see the show due to WAFF's scheduling it just after lunch--the closest I recall WAFF ever it airing toward PTAR was at 5 p.m., which happened during the show's second season or so, back around 1985 (then came the late '80s expansion of local news, then Oprah, and we know the rest). Everyone here, of course, knows the historic practice of ET affils usually leaving a full hour between network news and the beginning of network prime time, while CT affils only allot the 6:30 to 7 slot--something that has endured since PTAR, now formally abolished, went into effect in 1971.
To those of you who live in the CTZ, has something like this happened in recent years in your markets?
