TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

[DToTheJ]

Viewers of the show Jeopardy! in the Washington, D.C. area were incensed by the interruption of the program for severe weather updates during the Saturday edition of the popular game show.

And the station, WJLA-TV, took the time to respond to viewers' gripes on their blog.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/wj...dy-fans-upset-over-severe-weather-inteu_b9081

This is reminiscent of that angry woman in Texas who left a nasty phone message for her CBS affiliate after they interrupted "the season finale of Criminal Minds" with storm updates.

But granted, it's not the same thing: if I'm not mistaken, the episode of Jeopardy! that aired on Saturday was a rerun.

 

[bpatrick]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

WTVD pre-empted both "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel Of Fortune" Saturday
for continuing coverage of the storm, which hit eastern North Carolina
particularly hard (during the course of the storm, some 62 tornadoes
were counted in central and eastern North Carolina), and the idea that
anyone would object to the pre-emption of a game show for coverage
of such destruction seems to me patently absurd (I guess some of those
people probably would have called their local CBS affiliate to complain
when Walter Cronkite interrupted "As The World Turns" to announce that
JFK had been shot). This was a destructive storm that by 7:30 was moving
out of North Carolina and toward the Northeast. I commend both WTVD and
WJLA for their decision to stay with the storm story.

BTW, "Wheel" and "Jeopardy!" are reruns on Saturdays; those episodes come
from last season. Regular viewers will note that the woman who's the current
champion on weekday "Jeopardy!" was nowhere to be seen Saturday.

 

[firepoint525]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

My parents are regular Jeopardy watchers, but I don't recall them ever commenting on Jeopardy airing on Saturday. I am aware that Wheel of Fortune airs here on Saturdays, but I am not sure if those are current or reruns.

Back on topic, I am aware that one of the networks (I believe it was NBC) got complaints from viewers for interrupting their soap operas for coverage of the Challenger explosion. :

 

[bpatrick]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

Most everybody gets "Wheel" on Saturday; not everyone gets
"Jeopardy!"; I know that WBTW Florence, SC carries "Wheel"
but not "Jeopardy!" on Saturday.

To get to your other point, at least up until the O.J. Simpson
trial, the networks were always getting complaints when breaking
news pre-empted the soaps. But I think the Simpson trial (which
seemed like a real-life soap) was one of several things (especially
the desired demographic being in the workplace) that brought about
the decline and near-fall of the genre; so many people watched the
trial and never went back to their "stories".

 

[recto101]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

WTVD pre-empted both "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel Of Fortune" Saturday
for continuing coverage of the storm, which hit eastern North Carolina
particularly hard (during the course of the storm, some 62 tornadoes
were counted in central and eastern North Carolina), and the idea that
anyone would object to the pre-emption of a game show for coverage
of such destruction seems to me patently absurd (I guess some of those
people probably would have called their local CBS affiliate to complain
when Walter Cronkite interrupted "As The World Turns" to announce that
JFK had been shot). This was a destructive storm that by 7:30 was moving
out of North Carolina and toward the Northeast. I commend both WTVD and
WJLA for their decision to stay with the storm story.

BTW, "Wheel" and "Jeopardy!" are reruns on Saturdays; those episodes come
from last season. Regular viewers will note that the woman who's the current
champion on weekday "Jeopardy!" was nowhere to be seen Saturday.

What! look at San Francisco's KGO pre-empted Whel of Fortune, Jeopardy and some of ABC Network Programming last September for the San Bruno Pipe Explosion that could be seen Near the 280 freeway. I support KGO TV and all the Bay Area Stations for addressing this problem. Look at 1989 When the World Series was interrupted and ABC News had to go to KGO-TV for more details of the quake NO Baseball fan in CA ever complained that the baseball was ever interrupted for the quake. These people had their priorites out of place. Look at NYC Nobody complained that GMA was interrupted by 9/11 coverage.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

Clicking through to the actual blog post, I see the roster of WJLA's weather staff. I count 7 staffers with the title "Meteorologist", 2 "Weathercasters", 1 "Senior Meteorologist", 1 "Weather Blogger", and 1 "Chief Meteorologist."

That raises far more eyebrows for me than cutting into Jeopardy! on Saturday.

 

[gregg75]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

I think I'd rather know the tornado was on it's way than the capital of Idaho.

WSB cuts into programs a lot for weather, but I noticed a couple weeks ago,
their #1 show Dancing With The Stars, no interruptions there. I guess ratings
are more important than saving lives..........sometimes.

 

[kilamanjero]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

Viewers of the show Jeopardy! in the Washington, D.C. area were incensed by the interruption of the program for severe weather updates during the Saturday edition of the popular game show.

And the station, WJLA-TV, took the time to respond to viewers' gripes on their blog.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/wj...dy-fans-upset-over-severe-weather-inteu_b9081

This is reminiscent of that angry woman in Texas who left a nasty phone message for her CBS affiliate after they interrupted "the season finale of Criminal Minds" with storm updates.

But granted, it's not the same thing: if I'm not mistaken, the episode of Jeopardy! that aired on Saturday was a rerun.

Screw those jackasses, if you have that big of a problem with a TV station doing their jobs of providing a public service to the audience then those complainers deserve whatever happens to them in the future.

 

[kilamanjero]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

Clicking through to the actual blog post, I see the roster of WJLA's weather staff. I count 7 staffers with the title "Meteorologist", 2 "Weathercasters", 1 "Senior Meteorologist", 1 "Weather Blogger", and 1 "Chief Meteorologist."

That raises far more eyebrows for me than cutting into Jeopardy! on Saturday.

Allbritton-owned stations seem to take weather seriously. ABC 33/40 has 3 on-air staff meteorologists, but actually has a staff of like 8 meteorologists according to their weather blog. The only 2 of the other 5 staffers will appear on air time to time if the full-timers are unavailable or on vacation.

 

[bpatrick]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

WTVD pre-empted both "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel Of Fortune" Saturday
for continuing coverage of the storm, which hit eastern North Carolina
particularly hard (during the course of the storm, some 62 tornadoes
were counted in central and eastern North Carolina), and the idea that
anyone would object to the pre-emption of a game show for coverage
of such destruction seems to me patently absurd (I guess some of those
people probably would have called their local CBS affiliate to complain
when Walter Cronkite interrupted "As The World Turns" to announce that
JFK had been shot). This was a destructive storm that by 7:30 was moving
out of North Carolina and toward the Northeast. I commend both WTVD and
WJLA for their decision to stay with the storm story.

BTW, "Wheel" and "Jeopardy!" are reruns on Saturdays; those episodes come
from last season. Regular viewers will note that the woman who's the current
champion on weekday "Jeopardy!" was nowhere to be seen Saturday.

What! look at San Francisco's KGO pre-empted Whel of Fortune, Jeopardy and some of ABC Network Programming last September for the San Bruno Pipe Explosion that could be seen Near the 280 freeway. I support KGO TV and all the Bay Area Stations for addressing this problem. Look at 1989 When the World Series was interrupted and ABC News had to go to KGO-TV for more details of the quake NO Baseball fan in CA ever complained that the baseball was ever interrupted for the quake. These people had their priorites out of place. Look at NYC Nobody complained that GMA was interrupted by 9/11 coverage.

I haven't heard if WTVD got any complaints but the first entry on this thread says that WJLA did. At least some people have enough sense to understand when a station or network pre-empts regular programming for breaking news of the magnitude of an earthquake, a series of tornadoes, or a terrorist attack.

 

[RadioDaze]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

I used to work at cross-town WRAL-TV a decade ago, and we did get quite a few complaints whenever sports in particular was interrupted for weather emergencies. On the weekends, they came right to the assignment desk. I can remember one self-absorbed viewer there was no reasoning with, "Who cares about the f_____g tornado, I want to see the game". I just finally hung up on him.

 

[MarcB]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

*sigh* Some people.

Anyway even in my line of work (Club DJ) you get some self-absorbed people. On a recent Saturday night after the band finished performing for the night I had about 2 dozen people on the dance floor jammin to "Black and Yellow" by Whiz Khalifa. This young woman comes up to me in the DJ booth and says to me "Turn this shi* off. I don't like it." I told her that I can't turn off a song that people are enjoying just because yo don't like it. And like a tornado it could've been fatal to me if I had cut that song off. LOL. There is only one reason to cut off a song and that's if the CD starts skipping.

 

[azumanga]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

at least up until the O.J. Simpson trial, the networks were always getting complaints when breaking news pre-empted the soaps.

This was especially true of the Watergate hearings, which, when they started, was on all three networks. After getting complaints from viewers in regards to interrupting soaps and game shows, the three networks agreed to have only one network show the hearings and the others show their normal schedule, with each network taking turns showing the hearings.

Look at NYC Nobody complained that GMA was interrupted by 9/11 coverage.

...or all of network television the rest of the week, for that matter.

 

[bpatrick]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

I remember it well--the complaints the networks got because
all three were carrying the Watergate hearings. But even when
they went to rotating coverage, a network was free to air coverage
even if it wasn't its scheduled day (such as when John Dean testified).
Even I, a self-proclaimed Watergate junkie, would go looking for a game
show whenever there was a lull in the proceedings. But as Castleman and
Podrazik once said, the soaps and games were no match for the hearings
as the entire country tried to answer the question: What did the President
know and when did he know it? And I think that as the public became more
aware of the potential consequences, they were less inclined to complain.

What really strikes me as odd, though, is that in 1954 CBS and NBC refused
to pre-empt their daytime programs for the hearings against Joe McCarthy.
ABC and DuMont, with nothing else to show in daytime, stepped in, and in
the process managed to get some of those CBS and NBC stations in one-
and two-station markets to carry the hearings. I'm sure those stations heard
plenty from viewers.

As for anybody who would complain about the continuous coverage of
events such as 9/11 or (farther back) the JFK assassination, the nicest
thing I can say is that I have a low opinion of them.

 

[WPPCProductions]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

God forbid if a soap get interupted.the phones will be ringing off the wall.anyway the local do pre-empt saturdays shows for infomercials at times..

 

[wrsg915fm]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

"I'll take 'Morons Needing A Life' for $500, Alex"

 

[kilamanjero]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

I used to work at cross-town WRAL-TV a decade ago, and we did get quite a few complaints whenever sports in particular was interrupted for weather emergencies. On the weekends, they came right to the assignment desk. I can remember one self-absorbed viewer there was no reasoning with, "Who cares about the f_____g tornado, I want to see the game". I just finally hung up on him.

You are better than me because I would have hung up on him when he decided to used an expletive.

 

[vibe]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

For the complainers-"get a life."
For the victims-"we're sorry you lost yours"
For the TV stations that cut in/prempt during weather emergencies-"thanks, you may have saved someone out there whose life was in jeopardy."
I'd like to say more but I've run out of my allotted curse time for the day.

 

[recto101]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

What if KABC did not pre-empt ABC Soaps for the Rodney King Verdicts. Then every LA TV stations would be labled racist and violating free speech.

 

[searadiofreak]

Re: TV Station Gets Flak For Interrupting "Jeopardy!" Rerun With Storm Updates

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that OTA tv stations, as well as radio stations, are licensed to "operate in the public interest". If stations fail to do this they are violating the law and could lose their license. Basic broadcasting 101, but that seems to have been lost.