Season 38 Pre-emptions and Anomalies

Saturday notice: no direct interruptions on the East Coast. However, CBS has The Masters scheduled until 7:00 PM Eastern. Golf usually doesn't overrun, and when it does, they usually cut it off on CBS and continue it on the Golf Channel. Regardless, some CBS stations will likely pre-empt 7:00 PM airings for makeups of 6:00 newscasts. Likewise, as they do during College Football season, WBNS Columbus is doing a 7:00 newscast, sliding Jeopardy!'s rerun to 7:30, and Wheel's rerun to early Monday morning.

On the West Coast, ABC will be airing NBA games starting at 5:00 PM Pacific for at least the next three Saturdays (4/10, 17, 24), sliding Weekend Wheel to primetime slots and in some cases, putting it at risk of getting cut off from overrun. Among the West O&O's, KABC Los Angeles is airing it at 9:00 PM, immediately after the game and local program Slam Dunk that does not truncate if the game overruns. KGO San Francisco is airing it at 10:00 PM, well after the game and their own local postgame show. KFSN Fresno is airing it at 9:30 PM.

The episode rerunning this Saturday was originally pre-empted on the ABC O&O's and Nexstar-owned ABC stations for the 2019 CMA Red Carpet. All of the East Coast stations that pre-empted the original airing are properly airing it on Saturday, as are the West Coast ones in later time slots, though KABC will likely JIP it this time. The first time the episode aired, KABC did not air it at all, nor did WTNH in New Haven, Connecticut (which is airing it at the standard Saturday at 7:30 this time). WABC, WPVI, and WTVD all aired the episode on what was then Live Well Network (now Localish), while the others all aired it overnight.

The summer rerun of this episode was only pre-empted in one market: Lubbock, Texas (on KCBD, an NBC affiliate, by a charity special). Regardless, none of the three contestants in this episode reside in markets that air Wheel on ABC affiliates (although Dianne may see herself cut off on WPRI if The Masters overruns).

Thursday's Wheel was pre-empted on WTNH in New Haven, CT (ABC) by a town hall special. For possibly the first time, rather than Wheel (and J!) not airing at all, they were moved to sister station WCTX (MyTV) at their normal times, both replacing repeats of Judge Judy.

KBAK showed Jeopardy! on a one-day delay from Thursday-Saturday. Presumably since episode order matters for J! but not for Wheel, they aired Wheel's proper episodes on Thursday and Friday, and Wednesday's episode is airing right now (Saturday at 7:30 Pacific). Listings still had the Saturday reruns of both shows listed for today, but nice to see that they were fair to fans of both.

KVAL showed both shows' reruns tonight. Don't know about KOMO or KATU yet since West ABC's are airing Wheel later tonight because of NBA (which has a decent chance of overrunning, judging by the clock and close score as of 10:36 ET), but I did see that both still aired Friday's proper episode of Wheel last night.

EDIT: NBA overran about 10 minutes. KOMO aired the rerun in its entirety starting at about 9:13 Pacific (when I checked at 9:14, it was on Brittney's interview). KATU must have slid everything but Wheel, because an infomercial was still on at 10:05 instead of Jeopardy!, and when I checked at 10:45, Wheel's rerun was on R3. So that means KATU showed two infomercials in their entirety, but not Wheel of Fortune. How rude. As for KABC, either they JIP'd their special or didn't run Slam Dunk for a full 60 minutes, because Wheel started at 10:00 from the top.

ABC and NBC cut in at about 7:07 Eastern to show President Biden speaking about the verdict.

FOX optionally cut in at about 7:09. WXIX Cincinnati did not interrupt Wheel.

CBS did not interrupt programming anywhere. Checked several 7:00 CBS airings including WBZ and they all still had Wheel. However, WBNS, as I predicted, was showing local news before the cut-in, so J! may replace Wheel tonight.

^ Probably not. Unless something dire happens at 9:30 PM Minneapolis time.

One of the few 7:30 ET airings to be pre-empted last night was on KWQC in Davenport, Iowa (NBC), according to a post from anchor Alexis Hermansen. I assume this was due to additional local news at that time, since there was no severe weather there last night. Wheel aired at 3:30 AM Central, replacing the second half of the overnight encore of The Kelly Clarkson Show. Jeopardy!, which airs at 4:30 PM and was pre-empted by the national coverage, replaced the first half at 3:00 AM.

The NFL Draft won't be the only pre-emption for next week's sweepstakes week.

Next Wednesday, 4/28, President Biden will be giving an address live on the Big Three at 9 PM Eastern/6 Pacific. It is scheduled to run two hours, which means Wheel will be pre-empted in all of the Pacific Time Zone and Alaska (No Pacific FOX's carry Wheel), as well as in the state of Arizona since they are currently on the same time as Pacific Time. Presumably, most or all affected affiliates will air Wheel in the 9 or 10 PM hours. KABC will air Wheel at 10:00. I will check the rest next week.

This means Pacific ABC affiliates will be pre-empting Wheel three days in a row during the Home Sweet Home sweepstakes. At least they have the option to still air the show before 11 PM. I just worry the Draft overruns again this year like it did last year, which resulted in many affiliates JIP'ing or skipping Wheel after showing primetime local newscasts and/or J! in their entirety.

Wheel has announced that starting Wednesday, due to the several pre-emptions, anything at all can be entered as the BR puzzle for the Home Sweet Home sweepstakes.

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WEDNESDAY 4/28

Tonight's Wheel is pre-empted on two of the Buffalo Bills stations by a local Draft preview special: WIVB Buffalo and WROC Rochester. As usual, Buffalo will air Wheel on WNLO (CW) and Rochester will air it at 1:37 AM Eastern.


Listings anomaly that's probably a mistake: KGO San Francisco has Wednesday's airing of Wheel listed as a repeat of Tuesday's episode. Last night's Wheel was not known to have been pre-empted there.


This is my third attempt posting this. ProBoards was having issues earlier today, so I lost my organized table of West Coast air times tonight. I'm just going to post the airings listed by air times. All times are Pacific since Arizona is currently the same as Pacific Time.

Wednesday's Wheel will air at the following times in the following West Coast markets:

9:00 PM PT
KNVN - Chico, CA (NBC)
KAEF - Eureka, CA (ABC)
KMIR - Palm Springs, CA (NBC)
KNSD - San Diego, CA (NBC)
KOMO - Seattle, WA (ABC)

9:30 PM PT
KGUN - Tucson, AZ (ABC)
KYMA - Yuma, AZ (NBC)
KFSN - Fresno, CA (ABC)
KXTV - Sacramento, CA (ABC)
KOLO - Reno, NV (ABC)
KOHD - Bend, OR (ABC)

10:00 PM PT
KABC - Los Angeles, CA (ABC)
KGO - San Francisco, CA (ABC)
KNDO - Yakima, WA (NBC)

10:30 PM PT
KYUR - Alaska (ABC) [9:30 PM Alaska time]
KBAK - Bakersfield, CA (CBS)
KSBY - San Luis Obispo, CA (NBC) [Listed at 9:30; website confirms 10:30]
KLAS - Las Vegas, NV (CBS)
KVAL - Eugene, OR (CBS) [Likely; 9-11 PM listed as TBA]
KDRV - Medford, OR (ABC)
KATU - Portland, OR (ABC)
KHQ - Spokane, WA (NBC)

3:00 AM PT
KTVT - Phoenix, AZ (IND)


Wednesday's Wheel will not be airing at all in the following markets:

KSBW - Monterey, CA (NBC)