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Good stations that have aired some BAD syndicated shows!

J

johnnya2k6

Star Participant
In the "Who aired what: Lesser-known syndicated shows" thread, we have brought up a slew of forgotten programs that have got some airtime in various parts of the country.

Here in Atlanta (and as evidenced by my posts), there is only one station who has scraped the bottom of the barrel even further: WSB-TV Channel 2!!! Sure, they may be #1; but over the decades, they have also been able to pick up more syndicated garbage than any other station in my current market. While WAGA, WXIA, WGCL, WPCH, and WUPA have been very choosy in their clearances, the programming department at WSB on the other hand just doesn't give a damn and get whatever's left. In no particular order, here are some of the "wonderful" shows Channel 2 has aired:

Tic Tac Dough (1990)
Cleopatra 2525
Livin' Large
Jack of all Trades
The Lorenzo and Henrietta Music Show
Laugh Trax
Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection
Countdown at the Neon Armadillo
After Hours
Robocop: The Series
Live In Hollywood
The Source: All Access
Weekend Vibe
Check It Out!
Dancin' To The Hits
You Write The Songs
Sammy (Davis Jr.) And Company (aired opposite "The Peter Marshall Variety Show" on WXIA)
College Mad House
Relic Hunter
Air America
We Got It Made (1987)
The Parent Game
So You Think You Got Troubles?!
Jon Stewart (when his MTV show moved to syndication)
Home Videos of the Stars
Primus
Popcornflix.com movie package (occasionally)
And two brand new entries...The FABLife and Just For Laughs Gags!!!

It is still unknown whether or not WSB also aired "The Talent Agency", which too was forgettable...especially for Eva Longoria (it was the last worst thing she did before some show about a group of housewives who live on Wisteria Lane would change all that forever)!!

But I'm sure there are several other stations all over the country in markets large and small that have made the same kind of miscalls as WSB.
 
WISH in Indianapolis, being a major network affiliate didn't air a large amount of syndicated material during the day, but they never found anything to compete against Oprah on WTHR at 4pm. Here's a few programs I remember they aired against Oprah:

- COPS and The People's Court back-to-back (this would have been around the same time that Judge Judy launched in the mid 90s). A couple years later
- "Crossing Over with John Edward"
- "Pyramid" with Donny Osmond
- The Jane Pauley Show
- Family Feud with Richard Karn

I think they also plugged in "Ellen", "Dr. Phil", and "The Doctors" into that time slot in more recent years with more success.
 
If TheFABLife counts as bad, KIRO Seattle airs them at 9AM (and Meredith Vieira was moved to KONG!)
KIMA-29 (CBS) Yakima aired America's Court with Judge Ross in a double run between 2010-2011. They also aired "The Test" at 9AM in 2013-14, not a good fit for a CBS affiliate in my opinion. They also aired Maury for a few years in the early 00s. This is the same station that is going into a 22nd season of airing The Simpsons at 7:30 weeknights.

-crainbebo
 
Forgot to add WATL, though at one point they aired "Anything For Money" at an even bad slot: 11:00 pm opposite the late news on 2, 5, and (now sister station) 11!
 
"And two brand new entries...The FABLife and Just For Laughs Gags!!!"

WFTV airs those two as well, the first one right before it's 4 PM newscast of all things.
 
WPBN in Traverse City (one of the top two stations in its market) airs a double run of Celebrity Name Game at 11am, followed by Family Feud at noon and paid programming at 12:30pm.
 
KNDO Yakima, KNDU Tri-Cities - TMZ at noon weekdays. They also replaced Steve Harvey's talk show with that stupid Wendy Williams at 11AM, and replaced Dr. Oz with a double run of Millionaire from 3-4PM. Not the best moves, in my opinion.
 
Pittsburgh's WTAE, generally a well-regarded station with a strong news department, ran Small Wonder.

Yeah, THAT'S a tough one to live down.

Then they produced a series in-house called Big Sky Café that was even WORSE!
It starred Jack Bogut, the morning man on WTAE radio, who had been hired away from his
top-rated show on KDKA. The series was based upon his stories and musings of growing up
in rural Montana. Supposedly the TV series was part of the deal used to lure him away from KD.

It was just absolutely awful! Lasted a handful of weeks as I recall.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Pittsburgh's WTAE, generally a well-regarded station with a strong news department, ran Small Wonder.
Click to expand...
Them running "Small Wonder" was more of a corporate thing--Fox/Metromedia, Hearst, and Storer Broadcasting (WAGA, WJW, WJBK, WTVG, WITI, KCST [now KNSD]) were production partners in the show. I watched the show as a kid, and I check out the reruns on Antenna TV--it's one of those guilty pleasure shows...Tiffany Brissette was probably the only performer on that show that had some type of talent.
 
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