They preempted that for this?

[bpatrick]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

1983: WLOS pre-empted ABC's college football telecasts, substituted
a regionally-syndicated SEC game, then used the 3:30-7 PM slot for
syndicated programs and local news. Late in the season, when the
bowl bids and national championship entered the picture, there were
a lot of angry viewers in the western Carolinas. Needless to say, WLOS
has never pulled such a stunt again.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

In Memphis WMC NBC 5 used to pre-empt Notre Dame football on NBC for the SEC syndicated package when there was a time conflict. That's one case where I really didn't mind it because I'd usually rather see the SEC game. They'd show the ND game when there wasn't a conflict with the SEC game. They did this until recent years when the SEC package moved to WLMT 30.

 

[azumanga]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

In Memphis WMC NBC 5 used to pre-empt Notre Dame football on NBC for the SEC syndicated package when there was a time conflict.

In Tampa Bay, WFLA did the same thing in the early-1990s when they had SEC football -- they ran the SEC game while punting Norte Dame to local independent WTMV (now WMOR).

Since then, only the indies and lower-tiers (WMOR, WTTA and WTOG) has the syndicated games, while the Big 4s carry only network games.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Actually several CBS affiliates shifted Merv to the afternoon;
Tim Lones may recall that WJW was one;

I also recall Merv in the afternoon on WJW, though I wasn't sure if that was his syndicated or CBS version.

 

[SteveRichards]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Merv Griffin's late-night CBS show was canceled in February of 1972 and replaced with "The CBS Late Movie." Any Merv Griffin show after that would have been syndicated.

Fred Silverman, who was head of CBS programming at the time, stated in an Archive of American Television interview that he hated Merv Griffin's show.

 

[McCorryKL]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

WVII-TV Bangor showed very little of Kung Fu and Wonder Woman. Mod Squad reruns were usually shown instead of Wonder Woman. Happy Days also wasn't shown on WVII for quite awhile. WAGM Presque Isle was priarily CBS but would often opt in prime time for ABC and NBC programs, and 2-part episodes would air with the first part preempted. High School Basketball would result in Saturday morning preemptions of CBS network programming on WAGM. And whichever of the 3 Bangor stations carried Red Sox baseball games would preempt network offerings to show the game. Funny thing was that the people down in Maine would be dependent on Canadian networks to be able to consistently see American programs.

CHSJ-TV in N.B. here in Canada was CBC-TV affiliated but tape-delayed a lot of CBC programs and put its own commercials into the breaks. Easier, I suppose, to do that on tape-delay than live (though CHSJ did that too). Select episodes of CBC network programs would be preempted by CHSJ for telethons, auctions, World Literature Crusade, and sometimes just other tape-delayed programs.

 

[bpatrick]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Merv Griffin's late-night CBS show was canceled in February of 1972 and replaced with "The CBS Late Movie." Any Merv Griffin show after that would have been syndicated.

Fred Silverman, who was head of CBS programming at the time, stated in an Archive of American Television interview that he hated Merv Griffin's show.

At one point Silverman was trying to get Sonny and Cher to replace Merv with a late-night talk show. Another CBS executive asked Sonny, "If you were facing Gore Vidal or Malcolm Muggeridge, could you hold your own?" The expression of Sonny's face said it all: no way. End of that idea.

WJW moved Merv to the afternoons about four months or so after his debut on CBS (around December 1969 or January 1970),
and WAGA and WPRI did likewise. When Merv went into syndication, he went to WEWS (Tim Lones, correct me on that), IIRC,
in Cleveland. In Atlanta, WSB carried him from 12:30-2 PM; when "Days Of Our Lives" went to an hour (WSB was an NBC affiliate then, remember), they had to cut him to an hour. Metromedia wanted him on for 90 minutes in Atlanta; only WXIA (ABC) was willing to do it; they moved their local news to 5:30, ABC News to 6, and put Merv at 6:30. Didn't work, and within
a year was back doing its news block from 6 to 7 and games from 7 to 8. WAGA briefly tried pairing Merv with Mike in the afternoon (also unsuccessful), and he ended up on WATL in primetime.

Mike ran continuously, on WAGA, WSB, WTCG, back to WAGA (his longest run, six years from 1974-80 at 4:30), then back again to WSB over a period of more than fifteen years.
Merv did fairly well on Channel 11 at 6 PM before CBS got him, but the second syndicated run wasn't really all that successful...
something I still don't understand.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

WJW moved Merv to the afternoons about four months or so after his debut on CBS (around December 1969 or January 1970),
and WAGA and WPRI did likewise. When Merv went into syndication, he went to WEWS (Tim Lones, correct me on that), IIRC,
in Cleveland.

I was wrong in my earlier memories on this thread...I believe Merv's syndicated run was on WEWS, not WJW as I said earlier. I was kinda young to watch him on WJW...

 

[Tim L]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Merv has actually bounced around all 3 Cleveland VHF stations at one time or another..

KYW-3 First part of 1965 (11:20PM)
WEWS-5 Sept.1965-69 (afternoons)
WJW-8 1969-86 CBS/Syndicated

(It's possible that between 1972-86 WEWS may have gotten Merv back for a while but Merv was definitely on WJW into 1975 at least)

There was also the 1962-63 NBC Merv Griffin Show in Color..He also had a short lived Teen Music Show, "Saturday Prom" on NBC in 1960-61..Then there was "Play Your Hunch"

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

I defer to Tim, whose expertise in classic stuff is unmatched, and better than my swiss cheese memory.

And the next leap couid be...the leap home.

 

[bpatrick]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Merv has actually bounced around all 3 Cleveland VHF stations at one time or another..

KYW-3 First part of 1965 (11:20PM)
WEWS-5 Sept.1965-69 (afternoons)
WJW-8 1969-86 CBS/Syndicated

(It's possible that between 1972-86 WEWS may have gotten Merv back for a while but Merv was definitely on WJW into 1975 at least)

There was also the 1962-63 NBC Merv Griffin Show in Color..He also had a short lived Teen Music Show, "Saturday Prom" on NBC in 1960-61..Then there was "Play Your Hunch"

As part of Merv's severance agreement with NBC (to end the 1962-63 daytime talk show), he was allowed to create and produce shows for the network; the first, which he hosted, was "Word For Word" (1963-64); the second was "Jeopardy!".
Merv was also one of three hosts of the primetime game show "Keep Talking" (1958-60); Carl Reiner and Monty Hall also hosted that show.

 

[MattParker]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

When Merv left NBC (after he didn't get the Tonight Show and then his daytime talk-variety show was cancelled), he made a syndication deal for a daytime talk-variety show with Group W, which owned KYW 3 in Cleveland. When the FCC forced NBC to give back its Philadelphia station to Group W (NBC allegedly pressured Group W into trading Philly for Cleveland) and NBC resumed ownership of Cleveland channel 3 (and 1100AM), they dropped Merv.

Merv left Group W when he was offered the late night slot on CBS. When he wasn't able to topple Johnny, he went back into syndication with another company (this show was shown in daytime in more markets).

 

[Bluenoser]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

CHSJ-TV in N.B. here in Canada was CBC-TV affiliated but tape-delayed a lot of CBC programs and put its own commercials into the breaks. Easier, I suppose, to do that on tape-delay than live (though CHSJ did that too). Select episodes of CBC network programs would be preempted by CHSJ for telethons, auctions, World Literature Crusade, and sometimes just other tape-delayed programs.

And IIRC, they used to run an announcement over a program slide at the start of the show along the lines of `This program has been recorded from an earlier network broadcast for presentation at this time`...sometimes they used their own slide, and sometimes they used CBC`s or a modified form of it with whatever logo CHSJ used at the time.

 

[Wright County Guy]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption: THE ABC Chapter

Okay, here are the Minneapolis-St. Paul ones as best as I can recall, in time order...

WCCO (CBS) rarely ran CBS Late Movies. In the Summer of '79, as KMSP (ABC) was getting ready to lose their ABC affiliation, picked up the CBS Late movies, pre-empting ABC Late Night Programming.

KSTP (ABC since '79) never ran "Edge of Night". In the 80's, gone were USFL Football, American Bandstand, ABC Rocks, Eye on Hollywood, the 10-11am game show slot, and eventually Ryan's Hope and Loving. Most of these re-appeared on KXLI (Now ION's KPXM), but their transmitter is 60 miles NW of Minneapolis, so you had to have cable or a good antenna. Possibly the strangest pre-emption move was Eye on Hollywood/ABC Rocks, which ran in the post-Nightline spot aired at 6:30PM on KXLI!

In the late 80's, and early 90's all of the ABC 10-12noon CT block, save "Home", ran on KTMA (Now CW's WUCW). However, they ran out of order--Home always ran at 11:00am, so "Match Game 90" ran 30 minutes early at 10:30. When "Home" expanded to 60, then 90 minutes, KSTP kept only 30 minutes. The rest never aired here.

"Port Charles" never ran on KSTP. Eventually, it ran in its 11:30 time slot on co-owned KSTC until the show's demise and ABC's giving back that half hour to the affiliates.

Nightline ran usually at 11:35,but has been reinstated to 10:35. Jimmy Kimmel runs one-hour delayed to 12:07/

 

[Wright County Guy]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption MSP and CBS

WCCO always preempted the 9-10am slot with one exception: Summer of '87. Whatever syndicated fare went belly-up (maybe the end of "Hour Magazine" ) and Pyramid aired at 9. Card Sharks did not--it was Jeopardy! reruns instead. Groan.

The 9-10am did get picked up by the afore mentioned KTMA (still now WUCW) during the Feud/Wheel era. One time they had a heckuva mess when CBS moved Price is Right an hour earlier to accomodate the U.S. Open. Nobody told KTMA this, even though TV Guide listed Price is Right at 9 on 23. So...tape rolling: Price comes on for about 30 seconds on that fateful morning; then KTMA goes to black...probably wondering what the hell's going on...then station ID card for at least ten minutes; then PIR in progress til 10am. Groan.

CBS Late Night was pre-empted for Benny Hill or Soap at 10:30 and Barnaby Jones at 11. Evenrually, Buddy Ebsenand crew moved to midnight, allowing a CBS Late night show to run. Pat Sajak was always delayed to 11:05, too. Letterman actually started at 10:35, but Tom Snyder was delayed til 12:05 for Inside Edition.

For years, the CBS Morning News ran from 6-8, not 7-9am. Donohue was an 8AM staple forever. This also meant that every Thanksgiving, the parade would be joined in progress at 9am. Can't live without our Phil here.

 

[Wright County Guy]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption MSP and NBC

Okay, last chapter...

Johnny Carson ran at 11:05 due to MASH, then Cheers reruns on KARE. Letterman followed at 12:05.

Bob Costas got shifted over to .... say it with me...KTMA, but at 12:30! (So you had two NBC late night offerings going up against each other!) Eventually, Later came back to KARE at 1:05 (after Bob Costas left).

SNL also ran at 11:05 for decades. Currently KARE runs all the late night offerings at their God-given times.

KARE did not take reruns of "Facts of Life" at 9AM in the early 80s, (Pre-empted for the Muppets), but eventually gave NBC that half-hour, by 1983.

KARE always pre-empted the 11am NBC daytime offering for syndicated shows, so we never got "Super Password"--instead it was Mary Tyler Moore, then Let's Make a Deal, then $1,000,0000 Chance of a Lifetime, then Couch Potatoes (remember that Mark Summers vehicle?) and then...who knows what. My guess is that KARE had no confidence in the 12nET slot from NBC. Considering "Super Password" ran for 5+ years, they should have re-considered.

Strangely KTMA did NOT pick up "Super Password" either.

This season, KARE has dumped NBC's Saturday evening reruns for old movies .

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Kinda OT: But in the early 90s, Nick@Nite's classic TV countdown with Kasey Kasem would pre-empt all Nickelodeon programming on New Year's Day. A day when kids were not in school, this annoyed a lot of kids. "Nick is Everyday" was Nickelodeon's slogan back then (except New Year's day)

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Looks like another inexplicable (to sports fans) network preemption will occur tonight in the Peoria/Bloomington, IL market. The much-ballyhooed CBS primetime college basketball game tonight between Duke and North Carolina (ugh) will be preempted on local affiliate WMBD-31 in favor of the Easter Seals telethon (from 6-11 tonight). The proof is on their website promoting tonight's telethon:

http://centralillinoisproud.com/easterseals-2010

And one of the sports message board threads on the Peoria Journal-Star website also made mention of Duke-UNC not playing in Peoria:

http://www.pjstarforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84301

IF the NFL (that is, IF there is a season in 2011 and beyond) does expand their regular season to 18 games as has been discussed--which I would think would result in either Week 1 or 2 occurring on Labor Day weekend--could what happens in Peoria tonight be a preview of what could happen to Sunday Night Football in markets where the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon still runs on an NBC affiliate considering the telethon's new 6-hour Sunday night format announced last fall? (That is--if the telethon is still around by then). Link to last fall's thread on the National TV board concerning the reduced telethon hours, and a related article:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=176876.0

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/tv/2010/10/jerry-lewis-telethon-cut-to-6-hours.html

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Nationally Televised Network Sporting Events that were Pre-empted in your market

My reply to the "Most Inexplicable Network Preemption" thread in light of the Duke-UNC game on CBS bumped in my neighboring Peoria/Bloomington market (WMBD-31) due to the Easter Seals telethon got me thinking.

Any other notable instances--other than the usual Labor Day tradition in many markets of the US Open on CBS or NBC's golf coverage bumped in favor of the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon--where a major nationally-televised sporting event was preempted in favor of local programming in your markets of interest?

I know of a few other earlier examples involving Peoria stations (since I grew up within that market--plus also within Grade A/B range of the neighboring Quad Cities IA/IL DMA):

--In 1986, one of the seasons where Peoria's Bradley University won the Missouri Valley Conference and was going to The Dance, Easter Seals telethon coverage (IMO back in the days where it seemed like it was just as much of a big deal as Jerry's telethon on Labor Day) concluded on Selection Sunday--and the CBS NCAA selection show was scheduled before the telethon was slated to end. The CBS Selection Show that year was farmed out to NBC affiliate WEEK-25 (who carried many of the Bradley men's games locally)--and IMO if Bradley had not made the tourney that year the Selection Show probably would have went unseen in Peoria due to the Easter Seals telethon.

--The 1999 Army/Navy game coverage on CBS was also bumped by WMBD in favor of a Division I-AA (now Football Championship Series) playoff game involving Illinois State University in Normal, IL (the twin city of Bloomington).

--In the late '90s, back when ABC usually had Saturday college football doubleheaders weekly (IIRC), many times Peoria ABC affiliate WHOI-19 bumped the 11AM game in favor of ESPN Plus coverage of Big Ten games.

Any other major sporting event preemptions in your local markets? IIRC I have heard of some instances in parts of the country where the likes of NASCAR races were bumped in certain markets due to the likes of telethons, etc.

The proof in the pudding for Duke-UNC not playing in Peoria tonight is the Easter Seals telethon link on WMBD's website:

http://centralillinoisproud.com/easterseals-2010

Also a thread on one of the message boards sponsored by the Peoria Journal-Star alluded to tonight's preemption:

http://www.pjstarforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=84301

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Re: Nationally Televised Network Sporting Events that were Pre-empted in your market

--In the late '90s, back when ABC usually had Saturday college football doubleheaders weekly (IIRC), many times Peoria ABC affiliate WHOI-19 bumped the 11AM game in favor of ESPN Plus coverage of Big Ten games.

I think that was pretty common all over the midwest in the days before the Big 10 Network.