Season 36 Pre-emptions Thread

Tonight's season premiere will be affected on two ABC O&O's: KABC Los Angeles and KGO San Francisco. They will be airing the Rams @ Raiders football game tonight, scheduled for 7:20-10:20PM PT.

KABC is airing pregame coverage starting at 6:30PM, and postgame coverage until 11:00. A rerun of ABC's The Good Doctor will air at 1:07AM after Nightline (replacing the double run airings of Right This Minute and Millionaire, both of which are new episodes), followed by Jeopardy! at 2:06AM and Wheel at 2:36AM. Tonight's season finale of Bachelor in Paradise has been moved to independent station KDOC at its regular time.

KGO starts their pregame coverage at 7:00, postgame until 11:00, and Bachelor in Paradise at 1:07AM after Nightline, followed by The Good Doctor rerun at 3:08AM. KGO has stated that neither Wheel nor Jeopardy! will be airing at all. However, Jeopardy!'s first-run episodes may be pushed back to air Tuesday-Saturday, since they do air Jeopardy! on Saturdays during college football season (at 9:00PM PT instead of the usual 7:00). They do not air Wheel on Saturdays at all during this time, so Tuesday-Friday's Wheel episodes will likely air on the proper days.

It happened at least last season too, for what it's worth.

More like "Curse you, Autocorrect". It's a football game, not baseball. 

Welp, we're off to a great start this season.

Because the Primetime Emmy Awards are on a Monday this year, guess what this means for NBC airings of Wheel and its 7:30 time slot of death next Monday, 9/17? Yep, a 7:30 "pre-special special" pre-empting the show on most of the East Coast in addition to the event itself pre-empting it in the West. The West Coast will be airing an encore presentation immediately after it's over to fill up the rest of primetime, so there is no 9 or 10 PM window to move Wheel to this time.

However, the 7:30 Red Carpet special appears to be optional. The following affiliates air Wheel at 7:30 Eastern or 6:30 Central and still have it scheduled there as of 9/10:

• KYTV - Springfield, MO
• WAFF - Huntsville, AL
• KGNS - Laredo, TX
• KMOT - Minot, ND
• KFYR - Bismarck, ND

The following affiliates are moving Wheel to an alternate time slot or station, one of which will be airing the show early:


KKCO apparently loves Jeopardy! so much that they're airing it three times on the day of the Emmys - its usual double run at 4:00 and 4:30PM MT, followed by another airing of the rerun at 9:00PM before Wheel.

If you do not see your station listed above, then it is either not affected if Wheel airs at 7:00PM ET, or they're not airing Wheel at all. Note that some of these stations' listings have conflicting information because of apparent confusion over whether Mountain and Pacific stations will air the Emmys live with the East Coast or on a delay.


WDIV in Detroit is once again replacing Wheel at 7:00PM ET with Jeopardy! WTHR in Indianapolis, which normally does the same, still has Wheel listed at 7:00PM ET for now.

WCBD in Charleston's stance on Wheel is questionable. The last time the 7:30PM ET time slot got pre-empted, they moved up Jeopardy! to 7:00, replacing Wheel just like the two stations mentioned above. As of now, this station still has Wheel listed at 7:00PM ET on 9/17. However, their own website has J! listed at 7:30 (with no Red Carpet special) while other listings show the Red Carpet special at 7:30. If the latter is the case, they'll likely move J! to 7:00 and drop Wheel like they did during the last conflict.


If I am missing info on any affiliate, please let me know. I need a freakin' drink. Took me all afternoon to look up each affiliate's schedule.

The verdicts are in for Thursday Night Football. This year, it is moving to FOX (except on Thanksgiving where it will go back to NBC), thankfully meaning Wheel is impacted in far less markets than last year, but because of 7:30 pregame programming, Wheel is not out of the woods in some areas.

One station will be airing Wheel an hour earlier than usual, and half an hour before its earliest time slot in America. The good news is that no FOX affiliates are completely dropping Wheel. The bad news is that many are moving them to late-night slots (no subchannel or sister station moves), and one is doing the old "We don't want to pre-empt Jeopardy!, so we're putting it in Wheel's unaffected time slot" move. KHON in Hawaii will not be affected due to the huge time difference; the games are scheduled to end at 5:30PM Hawaii time.



Baltimore and Mobile are questionable, because their affiliates air Wheel at 7:30 ET/6:30 CT, but as of 9/13, their listings still have Wheel at its normal time, so maybe the pregame is optional?

Wheel shouldn't have been affected on WXIX in Cincinnati since it normally airs at 7:00 ET, but it's getting bumped to overnight thanks to its almighty sister game show taking over its time slot.

KVHP is a unique Wheel affiliate. They are perhaps the only station in the Central Time Zone that airs Wheel at 6:00 CT and not 6:30; likewise airing Jeopardy! at 6:30 and not an afternoon time slot. This might be because some areas in its market also receive ABC affiliate KATC out of Lafayette, Louisiana, which airs J! at 3:30 and Wheel at its usual 6:30, giving some Wheel Watchers two opportunities to catch the show that don't conflict with one another.

Apparently, WDIV did not update their local listings to match their Harry Friedman game show priority policy (First-run J! > Any Wheel > Rerun J!). Their website showed J! at 7:00 from the start, though.


Because Trebek's almighty beard is of utmost importance.

For tonight, as well as Monday 10/1, Columbus' CBS affiliate WBNS is pre-empting Jeopardy! and Wheel with the first two out of three Ohio Gubernatorial Debates. On both days, J! will air at 1:37AM ET and Wheel at 2:07AM ET.

The third debate will be on Monday 10/8. Listings don't go that far ahead yet, but the schedule will most likely be the same.

Both markets have updated their listings.

WBFF in Baltimore is moving Wheel to 12:05AM ET.

WALA in Mobile is moving Wheel to 2:30AM CT.

Football aside, Wheel may get pre-empted tonight on the East Coast by the Kavanaugh hearings, which are still happening as of 6:30 ET. ABC, CBS and NBC are all airing the event live. FOX is not, meaning Wheel's early airing on WLUK in Green Bay should be unaffected.