They preempted that for this?

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Preemption contracts between the nets and affiliates are much more strict nowadays, I believe. Usually a station is allowed only so many hours a year. Sometimes when you see a movie on Friday nights at 9PM or in the middle of the week, people at the station will call it "make-good theatre"....The station is using some worn-out movie to cram it with spots, to "make good" on local and agency spots that might've been missed because of a presidential adress, breaking news, or that they've simply over-sold. I worked at one station that simply didn't tell the network what it was preempting, and hoped it never found out.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

oldschooler1 said:

I worked at one station that simply didn't tell the network what it was preempting, and hoped it never found out.

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That's kind of silly -- I mean, don't the networks get a station-by-station ratings breakdown so they can see how they're doing in various markets? A rating of 0.0 for the network show in any given time slot is going to look just a little bit suspicious.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Going back to SNL, I recall WNEM in Saginaw, MI (an NBC affil at the time) not carrying the show at all until 1980, after Lorne and the original cast left. I think this was more due to the popularity of their late movie than morality, since WNEM did carry the "best of" specials in prime-time.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

In the 1970s, WHBQ-13 in Memphis (ABC) was notorious. Beginning in 1972, WHBQ preempted "American Bandstand" to carry their weekly wrestling show (ringside announcer Lance Russell at the time was also the station's PD). The 11 AM cartoon (usually "Weekend Special") was also bumped for this reason. LR was said to be arch-conservative in his beliefs, and used them to make programming decisions. "Soap" was preempted (surprise, surprise), as was "Hot L Baltimore" -- I clearly remember Lance himself making a statement about how the programming didn't fit the moral standards of Memphis, and that he hoped we'd enjoy the following, more "family friendly" program: reruns of "Green Acres"! 13 didn't begin carrying GMA until 1978 or so, and then only for an hour. The full two hours wouldn't run in Memphis until ca. 1980. And don't get me started on daytime, especially in the mid to late '70s. This wasn't TOO inconvenient for Memphians and most of the surrounding area, as a halfway decent antenna could pull in ABC signals from Jonesboro, Ark. (KAIT-8), Jackson, Tenn. (WBBJ-7) and sometimes WABG-6 out of Greenwood, Miss. KAIT in particular could be received somewhat in metro Memphis. Where it was a big pain was Tupelo, Miss., where we lived in the '70s. There were two options each for CBS and NBC, but only one ABC: WHBQ. Birmingham was too far away, as was Greenwood.*********WPSD-6 (NBC) in Paducah, Ky. was another doozy. SNL wasn't carried until 1979, and then on a one-hour delay. Entire primetime lineups would be regularly preempted for Kentucky Wildcat basketball games -- despite the fact that Kentucky makes up barely 1/3 of the coverage area! Mention was already made about WKRG-5 (CBS) in Mobile. I have a Gulf Coast Edition TV GUIDE from 1969 I'll have to dig out and post. 'KRG didn't outright preempt gobs of CBS shows so much as they just shuffled 'em around! What I understand in their case was that in the mid-ish '70s CBS either threatened to revoke another affiliate (or outright did - I don't know) for that same practice, and WKRG suddenly got religion.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

In the summer of 1994, KPNX-12 (NBC) in Phoenix would regularly pre-empt the limited-run news/satire series TV Nation for a series of medical-related specials produced by a local hospital chain, and would not run the show at another time. This was at a time when the host of the show, Michael Moore, was only known for his film Roger & Me, and did not have the notoriety he does today. However, I have a suspicion that the management of KPNX knew what his views were at the time, and pre-empted TV Nation on purpose. The next year, when FOX (of all networks) gave Moore a second chance, KSAZ-10 aired every episode at its scheduled time. Maybe being a New World-owned station (and the company's new and close relationship with FOX at the time) helped.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

WSMV-Nashville and WTMJ-Milwaukee pre-empted the Tonight Show at some point in the 80s.

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I can't vouch for Nashville, but it's true that WTMJ pre-empted Johnny Carson during much of the 1980s. This was at a time, IIRC, when Johnny was regarded as starting to skew old and some NBC stations thought they'd do better running something else to attract a younger audience. In WTMJ's case, it was off-network reruns ranging from Soap to Trapper John MD to Magnum PI. This started around 1982 or 1983 and lasted until WTMJ decided to bring back Johnny in September 1989. Milwaukee wasn't without Johnny, though: then-independent WVTV picked up The Tonight Show during the time WTMJ didn't have it.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Julius May said:

But WPVI did air the daytime ABC Family Feud correct and some other ABC game shows?

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Feud ran, but some other shows like Match Game 90, Trivia Trap etc. never saw the light of day. They also tended to pre-empt the network reruns like Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Home and Mike & Maty only aired for 30 minutes.

Not At All Inexplicable

The explanation is MONEY!Some you seem to presume stations SHOULD - MUST carry network programs. The station licensee is ultimately responsible for what goes on the air - not the network. The balance of power has shifted some in recent years and in practical terms local station management has much less freedom to tweak their own schedules - especially since networks now own so many more stations. Still there is something to be said for local programming and adjusting schedules to local needs and preferences.

Re: Not At All Inexplicable

fred flintstone said:

The explanation is MONEY!Some you seem to presume stations SHOULD - MUST carry network programs. The station licensee is ultimately responsible for what goes on the air - not the network.

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Actually the motivation isn't always money ...... sometimes, as we've seen, it's about a station's (often misguided) sense of morality. Look at the stations that refused to clear SNL for years. It's a hit show, very profitable for the network, and -- typical for network late-night -- offers plenty of local avails. The local station's sovereignty as a business must be balanced with its obligations as a network affiliate -- an affiliation that's mutually beneficial. The net gets an outlet in a given town for their programs which its sponsors have paid for, in good faith that it'll receive close to full carriage. The station gets the prestige, profit, "compensation" and added financial value of being a network affiliate. If you find that something else works better in a timeslot, then DELAY the program rather than just not carry it. Arbitrary non-clearance ultimately bites the hand that feeds. And as a viewer, I especially resent it when stations, which feel it's their birthright to preempt at will, vigorously fight for "exclusivity" in a market. Case in point, our local NBC station occasionally preempts the 8:00 hour in prime time to carry those @#$% Billy Graham specials. Therefore, viewers who want to watch the NBC show are SOL. If you're the EXCLUSIVE outlet for a network, then by gawd you should offer what the network offers. If you're an NBC station, it's like you're a "franchise" for the NBC fast-food chain. What if the manager of your local McDonald's decided that you couldn't get a Big Mac because, in his view, they weren't profitable in your city?I've always been of the belief that a network affiliate should be as faithful to the network as possible. And I applaud the networks for tightening local preemptions. If a station wishes to do what it wants, fine. Then it should follow the lead of WJXT-4 in Jacksonville, Fla.: drop the network (in their case CBS) and become an indie. --Russell

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

The Pittsburgh market was notorious for pre-empting programming from the 60's through the 80's.The ABC affliate WTAE would dump a lot of daytime shows."Dark Shadows" was shown on a delay basis in the mornings."One Life To Live" didn't air in the market until 1983."GMA" didn't air until sometime in the early 80's too.They did have a local show that aired from 8a til 9:30am that was successful so dumping local (which was huge and making money) was probably a bad idea."American Bandstand" was constantly pushed aside for local bowling.I could go on for days about daytime shows that never aired.KDKA used to pre-empted "Password" during its run for "Mike Douglas".The station was Westinghouse which owned the Douglas show. They probably had no choice.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

In the mid-80s KYW-3 Philadelphia (then Westinghouse owned and NBC affiliated, now CBS O&O) would preempt Santa Barbara with delayed (from that morning) NBC game shows (Sale of the Century and Wheel of Fortune) at 3:00 and 3:30. KYW would then show SB on delay the following weekday morning.KYW in this era would also dump off NBC's morning reruns of The Facts of Life to WTAF-29 (then a Taft-owned indie, now Fox O&O WTXF).Also in the mid-80s, Hearst's WBAL-11 Baltimore (then CBS affiliated, now NBC affiliated) would preempt Press Your Luck at 10:30 am with the latest version of Let's Make a Deal (syndicated). (LMAD has had more lives than a cat, but that's another thread). I don't think PYL was cleared in Baltimore.ixnay

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

In Memphis, WREG almost always carried all of the CBS daytime schedule except for the 3 pm show.WMC was good about showing NBC's daytime shows until the late 70s. At some point by the end of the 1980s they pre-empted most of it.WHBQ didn't start carrying All My Children until November of 1975 and as Russell pointed out pre-empted other shows as well.I would disagree that this was not a problem in Memphis. Even with a rooftop antenna, I could never get a watchable signal from WBBJ or KAIT and knew no one inside the city that ever could pick up those stations on a regular basis. At some point in the 1980s, KAIT upgraded and can now be picked up with a good antenna. Memphis cable has never carried any out of market stations.In the 1970s, all 3 Memphis stations had a Noon newscast. I never saw another market with this many news shows at Noon.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Pgh TV said:

The Pittsburgh market was notorious for pre-empting programming from the 60's through the 80's.The ABC affliate WTAE would dump a lot of daytime shows."Dark Shadows" was shown on a delay basis in the mornings."One Life To Live" didn't air in the market until 1983."GMA" didn't air until sometime in the early 80's too.They did have a local show that aired from 8a til 9:30am that was successful so dumping local (which was huge and making money) was probably a bad idea."American Bandstand" was constantly pushed aside for local bowling.I could go on for days about daytime shows that never aired.KDKA used to pre-empted "Password" during its run for "Mike Douglas".The station was Westinghouse which owned the Douglas show. They probably had no choice.

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I have a Pittsburgh TV Guide from 1976...quite a few pre-empted shows were picked up by WPGH-53.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

That happened a lot in other cities as well when a particular affiliate "dumped" a lot of the network offerings. It was a good thing for independents back then -- picking up those shows helped them fill the schedule (always a problem for indies then -- nowadays they can always stick on some infomercials if they have gaps in the sked!) -- and gave them some more higher profile "name" programs to attract ratings and local advertisers.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Stanislav said:

Network affiliates, of course, sometimes refuse to carry the network offering in a particular time slot. Sometimes this is done in the case of a particularly low-rated show that is bumped by syndicated programming that management feels will garner a better rating. And sometimes it's done just on a one-shot basis because of some local telethon or other special event, or a paid special (like a Billy Graham crusade).But I'm not asking about those understandable pre-emptions. Can you think of a case where a local has bumped a decently-rated network program on a regular basis in favor of something that just didn't seem to make much sense?

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Today, WSB-TV Atlanta and WSOC-Charlotte (both Cox ABC stations) will not air Jimmy Kimmel. Sister WFTV Orlando did as well until last November. The GM at WFTV then is now at WSB, so we will see what happens.In speaking of WSB-TV, it is the king of premtions, dating back to the 70's. Today, WSB preempts primetime programming about twice a month for local specials, most of which are Barbra Walters type specials hosted by WSB's chief news anchor Monica Kaufman. "World News Tonight" airs at 7:00 so that WSB can do a full hour of news at 6:00. GMA Weekend also does not air so that WSB can do 4 hours of local news Saturday Mornings (6:00-10:00 AM) and 3 1/2 hours on Sunday (7:30-11:00 AM).WGCL most recently has preempted several CBS Sunday night movies and replaced them with movies from the 80's and 90's. The CBS movie would air in the late-night hours.Fox O&O WAGA has not done a network preemption in years, thanks to a 1997 incident when the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals was preempted for a Children's Miracle Network telethon. A message board on WAGA's website at the time was filled with numerous complaints.WXIA-TV (NBC) got burned once too. They wanted to preempt a new episode of "The West Wing" airing on a Wednesday to air their local Community Service Awards live. At the time, WXIA controlled Pax's WPXA (under the national LMA with Pax and NBC/Gannett stations), so West Wing would air on WPXA instead. Satellite providers at the time did not carry WPXA. To soothe things over, WXIA jury-rigged the signal carried on DirectTV and Dish Network to show West Wing while the CSA's went out on WXIA's OTA signal and on local cable systems. The CSA's are now taped and air on Saturdays.---------------------------In the affiliate's contract's with the networks, the affiliates have to carry all network commercials if they carry a network program. Affiaiates have the right to preempt (under FCC order form the 1950's), but affilates must get permission to time-shift and show the program at a later time.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

It hasn't come up yet, but affiliates still pre-empt the network on Sunday night when the local NFL team is playing on the ESPN Sunday night game (including network-owned stations). Sometimes they will run "missing shows" after the game and late news; sometimes not.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

ixnay said:

Also in the mid-80s, Hearst's WBAL-11 Baltimore (then CBS affiliated, now NBC affiliated) would preempt Press Your Luck at 10:30 am with the latest version of Let's Make a Deal (syndicated). (LMAD has had more lives than a cat, but that's another thread). I don't think PYL was cleared in Baltimore.ixnay

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For a brief time Press Your Luck did air on WBAL, but you are right, they started pre-empting it in either 1984 or 1985 with Lets Make A Deal.Meanwhile in DC, then WDVM channel 9 ( now WUSA ), they would pre-empt a bunch of CBS. At 10am when CBS was airing Pyramid and Press Your Luck, WDVM would show Morning Break. At 11am instead of Price is Right, sometimes WDVM would air reruns of Rich Man, Poor Man instead. Body Language to my knowledge was never seen in either DC or Baltimore.Saturday Mornings: as far as the CBS cartoons went, nothing aired past 9:30am. Instead, WDVM aired the teen issue show "In Our Lives" , a rerun of Tom Bosley's Thats Hollywood and the news show Saturday magazine.The late night line-up was delayed thanks to WDVM airing then then-syndicated Lie Detector and later the Keene version of Divorce Court.At least 3 times a month it seems the prime time CBS line-up was pre-empted in part or sometimes in full by either Billy Graham or one of those Save The Children specials.WDVM one time pre-empted Murder She Wrote, this was in 1985 back when that was a big show. In favor of a special about Alaska.By the time Gannett bought DC's channel 9 and changed the calls to WUSA ( around 1986 ), there were fewer pre-emtions and today there isn't much.Footnote...at the time I lived in Virginia not far from DC, and because of the constant WDVM pre-emptions of CBS, the local cable company added WTVR, the Richmond CBS affilate to its line-up. WTVR remains to this day on cable.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

Not exactly prime time, for many several years in the 1960's the ABC affiliate in Boston (WNAC 7 if I remember correctly) chose not to air American Bandstand. I'm not sure what they aired in place of it, but I used to have to watch channel 9 out of New Hampshire to catch Bandstand.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

KIRO TV the CBS affiliate in Seattle had a bad reputation for not carrying several CBS Daytime shows thanks to their owners in Salt Lake City, Bonneville International (aka "The Mormons"). They never aired "The Jokers Wild" in the early 70's, "Press Your Luck", "Family Feud", and the soap "Capitol". Their biggest mistake was not airing "The Bold and the Beautiful" from it's inception in 1987 however in 1994 several months before CBS moved to KSTW TV (Channel 11 now UPN), we started to have the show on in the Seattle area, and then when KIRO TV got it's CBS affiliation back, they ended up carrying B&B because of a different ownership with Cox Broadcasting.KIRO TV did carry "The $25,000 Pyramid" for one season in 1985 - 86.I had a real hot temper when KIRO refuse to air B&B and was hoping in 1994 they would move to KSTW and it worked!Also KOIN TV in Portland had that bad reputation in not carrying B&B, they carried it in 1990, but then after protests by fans it came back in 2000 after hearing that Seattle and several cities nearby started airing the show.

Re: Most Inexplicable Network Program Pre-Emption

SeattleTVFan said:

KIRO TV the CBS affiliate in Seattle had a bad reputation for not carrying several CBS Daytime shows thanks to their owners in Salt Lake City, Bonneville International (aka "The Mormons"). They never aired "The Jokers Wild" in the early 70's, "Press Your Luck", "Family Feud", and the soap "Capitol".

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I guess the first two sounded too much like gambling, and "Family Feud" implied discord within a family, which of course the Mormons never have, right? Of course, I recently read an article that pointed out the hypocrisy of the fact that the #1 rated prime-time show in Salt Lake City was "Desperate Housewives," which seems about as far afield from the Mormon ideal of the family as I can imagine!