This reminds me of something I remember from when I worked at a CBS affiliate. We had to do emergency maintenance on the automation system and had to take the whole thing down and reboot it when all was said and done. So when The Price is Right started at 11, we cut to the direct CBS satellite feed (with a pair of tape machines being able to cut in a handful of local spots) and did the work before cutting the local automation back in just before the news at noon. No local spots or promos besides what was merged together on the tapes, but it kept us from an extended period off the air while we got everything taken care of.
So it could have been something like that, but that's an awful lot of ad revenue to lose given that it was during a sporting event. It would have to be pretty catastrophic.
- Trip