Season 36 Pre-emptions Thread

Because of the storm coverage last night, KCBD aired the special a day later, meaning Lubbock lost Wheel two days in a row. Ratings sabotage at its finest.

WBRE WILL be preempting WOF and J! on the 3rd, and of course, only J! will be getting a replacement at 2:37. I’ll be calling them tonight or tomorrow to see if they’d do anything for Wheel.

Monday is the first game of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final airing on NBC from 8:00-11:00PM ET.

These games will affect Wheel of Fortune on all NBC affiliates in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones on the following days:

• Game 1: Monday, May 27 (America's Game V, Day 1)
• Game 4: Monday, June 3 (Rail Tour, Day 1)
• Game 5 (if necessary): Thursday, June 6 (Rail Tour, Day 4)
• Game 7 (if necessary): Wednesday, June 12 (rerun, episode TBA)

Here is Wheel's scheduling on all affected days on all affected affiliates. Note that one is airing the show earlier than usual, while most of the others are airing it in primetime.


*8:00PM PT airings of Wheel will get pre-empted at least in part of the game runs over.


Note that KYMA Yuma's 4:00 PM airing is early for the market, but is not ahead of the rest of America. Since Arizona does not observe DST, KYMA's early airings will be in sync with 7:00PM ET airings.

According to most listings, KNSD San Diego will be airing a three-hour "Special Edition" newscast from 8:00-11:00PM PT and Wheel and Jeopardy! are not listed at all. However, TitanTV has just one hour of news at 8:00, then Wheel and J! at 9:00 and 9:30, and a rerun of Dateline at 10:00. San Diego viewers might want to set a recording for the three-hour 8:00 news just in case.

Keep being stubborn, KCWY Casper. Don't join most of the others by putting Wheel in the 9:00 hour. Go ahead and schedule Dateline reruns instead and keep skipping over new episodes of both Wheel and Jeopardy!  

KKCO is also unfortunately on Team Dateline this year. My guess is they couldn't find a half-hour program to pair Wheel with for the 9:00 hour since J! airs as a double run in the 4:00 PM hour which is unaffected and immediately before the game (and I believe the first-run ep is 4:30 which means it will definitely be getting a lot of eyeballs from bars and other TV's that tune to KKCO before the game). Still, they couldn't just choose an infomercial or some syndie rerun? Hmph.

Tonight in Indianapolis, WTHR is airing the Indy 500 Victory Banquet all night, including a Red Carpet show at 7:30PM ET. This is Jeopardy!'s time slot, but since WTHR is one of those "Screw Wheel, put Jeopardy! in its slot" stations, that is exactly what's happening yet again.

Wheel, as well as the Stanley Cup game, will be moved to sister station MeTV affiliate WALV (naturally, many hockey fans are complaining about this move, especially since it is not carried on DirecTV). Wheel will air right before the game at 7:30 instead of its usual 7:00 slot. Listings still have M*A*S*H on MeTV at 7:30, so you will have to schedule a recording for that in order to record Wheel.

Due to severe weather coverage, WSBT in South Bend, Indiana (CBS) pre-empted tonight's Wheel.

Their coverage "conveniently" ended at 7:30PM ET just in time for the other game show. It appears they have no plans to re-air tonight's episode.

Wheel is being pre-empted on most West Coast ABC affiliates by the NBA Finals on the following days:

• Game 1: Thursday, May 30 (America's Game V, Day 4)
• Game 3: Wednesday, June 5 (Rail Tour, Day 3)
• Game 4: Friday, June 7 (Rail Tour, Day 5; season finale)
• Game 5 (if necessary): Monday, June 10 (rerun of 10/15/18; Great Outdoors, Day 1)
• Game 6 (if necessary): Thursday, June 13 (rerun of 10/18/18; Great Outdoors, Day 4)

Games 2 and 7 will be played on Sundays.


Here are how all affected affiliates will be handling Wheel for the remaining first-run days of Season 36:


^[1] The 9:01PM PT time slot immediately follows a special episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the game. If the game and JKL! run long, Wheel will likely get pre-empted in part or in full.

^[2] On KAEF Eureka, most listings still have Wheel at its regular time on Friday 6/7 with the game erroneously starting at 8:30PM PT instead of live at 5:30. TitanTV has the same scheduling as the other NBA days.

^[3] IMPORTANT! KABC Los Angeles' website has Wheel listed at 10:00PM PT and Jeopardy! at 10:30. However, other listings have the two switched. This was also the case last time the two aired in primetime after an NBA game. To record Wheel on KABC this Thursday, one will have to schedule Jeopardy! to record, and vice-versa.

^[4] Since KABC is not airing Wheel at all on Wednesday, they may air the Wednesday-Friday episodes on Thursday-Saturday, similar to what they did last year. However, the proper Thursday-Saturday episodes are still in listings and on KABC's website.

Two LA viewers on the Jeopardy! subreddit confirmed KABC once again aired the two game shows in the opposite order. Wheel aired at 10:00, as stated on KABC's website, despite all other listings scheduling it for 10:30.

On WDIV Detroit, tonight's episodes of Wheel and Jeopardy! are being pre-empted by a one-hour local special on the Detroit Grand Prix, which starts today. However, instead of simply not airing the game shows at all as they would usually do, they will air one hour later at 8:00 and 8:30PM ET, replacing a new episode of NBC's Blindspot.

Not often you see a station value syndies over network primetime. I approve of this move. Blindspot fans can watch the episode On Demand tomorrow.


Also, while the NBA Finals did run over last night, KOMO Seattle opted to start Wheel and Jeopardy! late rather than join Wheel in progress. According to a Seattle J! viewer, J! started around 9:45PM PT after Wheel aired in full.

Last night’s Wheel and Jeopardy! episodes were pre-empted on WVEC in Hampton, Virginia (ABC) due to coverage of the mass shooting in Virginia Beach.

Friday’s episodes will air tonight in place of their usual reruns.