Season 39 Pre-emptions and Anomalies

Last night resulted in the same episode getting pre-empted twice in the same markets. The January 17 episode (#S-7516) was pre-empted on West Coast ABC's by the NFL Wild Card game, which was scheduled until 8:15 PT but overran to about 8:30, but apparently this did not cause any airings of Wheel to slide or get JIP'd, and all affected ABC's scheduled Wheel in primetime slots, so the episode likely aired in its entirety in all of the West Coast the first time.

The rerun of this episode was pre-empted again on West ABC's by the NBA Finals, which are scheduled until 8:30 PT. I didn't see what time it signed off, but I did see that there was about a minute left on the game clock at 8:30. This pre-emption did not apply to KOTA which keeps Wheel at 6:00 MT on NBA days. I don't know about the other stations but Wheel likely slides on KOMO since it follows news. KGO is continuing to air Wheel overnight at 3:30 AM PT during the NBA Finals (TV Passport claims only Wheel is airing overnight and J! is airing at 10:30 PM but apparently this isn't the case); the original airing of the episode aired at 10:00 PM PT in its entirety.

The original airing of 7516 was also pre-empted on WKRN and WILX by local specials; both aired the rerun as normal.


Right. The hearings last week did not affect any East Coast airings of Wheel. FYI, whenever I say "East Coast", I'm referring to the Eastern and Central Time Zones.

The hearings will also be occurring during primetime hours on Thursday, June 23, but none of the networks have announced plans to carry them on that day. For ABC, it conflicts with the NBA Draft, which will once again pre-empt Wheel on its West Coast stations.

On KPAX in Missoula, Montana, Wednesday's Wheel had a couple of problems. The Round 3 segment was accidentally aired twice in a row, but no segments were skipped. This caused Wheel to run slightly over its time slot. Because of this, KPAX cut off the episode during the social media bumper following the Bonus Round, meaning the closing segment did not air. Following some commercials, The Price is Right at Night was joined in progress during the first one-bid.

This episode reran Friday and ended up being pre-empted a second time on West Coast ABC's due to the Stanley Cup. However, the first time around, the NBA Playoff game ended on time, so all West ABC's aired Wheel on time in its entirety before 11 PM. Friday's Stanley Cup overran about 7 minutes.

Last Friday's Wheel was also pre-empted in the entire state of Montana by an hour-long special on the recent floods. Friday's episode aired Saturday at 4:30 PM Mountain on all Montana CBS's; they are not airing the weekend rerun.


FOX is still airing MLB games starting at 7:00 ET on Saturdays. CBS had a racing event today from 8-10 ET which moves Wheel on West CBS's. KRQE has Wheel at 3:35 AM MT. The race ran over by about three minutes; KKTV had Wheel scheduled immediately after, but they did air in its entirety slightly late, along with J!, presumably JIP'ing 48 Hours (which is a repeat tonight) after that. KBAK has Wheel at 9:30 PM PT tonight.

If Tampa Bay wins tomorrow's Stanley Cup game, there will be one more West Coast ABC pre-emption for Wheel next Tuesday. Otherwise, it will all be over if Colorado wins.

Due to an NBC Special on Ukraine scheduled for 6:30 Central, Most NBC stations that air wheel reruns on Sunday will not air it on July 3rd
The ones that do not will be fine

Tonight's rerun of this episode will once again be pre-empted on WROC Rochester, along with WIVB Buffalo, WTEN Albany, and WIVT Binghamton, by "Destination New York", a Nexstar-produced special showcasing NY travel destinations (besides NYC) that air on all of their NY-based stations at 7:00 PM ET, including ones that don't air Wheel.

Traditionally, the special repeats the following Saturday, also usually in the 7:00 slot (although WROC opted to delay the Saturday airing to 7:30 at least once to throw Wheel a bone).

This will likely air again at least once more at some point in mid-July.

Goes without saying, but Wheel and all other programming today on WLS Chicago, including ABC World News Tonight, has been pre-empted as they continue to air local coverage of the events in Highland Park.

^ Specifically, regarding the suspect being taken into custody. On WPVI, the show was still on commercial when it was interrupted, and it returned during the full credit roll. On WABC, the interruption happened right before the Bonus Wheel spin, and none of the credits aired after the special report signed off.


ABC's special report ran from about 7:54-58.

7:30 ET NBC airings were also interrupted, with their special report running from about 7:50-54, which would have affected the Speed-Up but likely not the Bonus Round.

On CBS, there was a brief, minute-long special report at about 7:58, so no gameplay should have been lost on Wheel airings.

FOX did not have any special report.

As Pittsburgh viewers should know by now, Wheel and Jeopardy! swapped time slots last Monday on WPXI, due to J!'s higher ratings (sigh...). This also holds true for Saturdays, or so it's implied. Tonight, the first Saturday where Wheel should have aired at 7:00 instead of 7:30, it was pre-empted with an infomercial for a local appliance store. WOF Weekend was also pre-empted at least one other time this season (probably more) for an infomercial when it was airing at 7:30, which pretty much proves no matter which slot Wheel airs in, it will almost-always be the first target for pre-emptions on most stations, not necessarily the 7:30 slot for being the primetime lead-in.

This is not a good sign for NFL season when "The Jerome Bettis Show" would air Saturdays at 7:30 and pre-empt WOF Weekend. I have a feeling that show will move to 7:00 next weekend so J! Weekend does not get pre-empted, as it never was when it aired at 7:00. We shall see... I know WOF Weekend isn't nearly as big a deal, but it's still WOF, and I want to say this particular run still beats J!'s run in ratings since not as many markets carry J! Weekend, and several Central Time Zone affiliates schedule it in odd or constantly-changing time slots, or always overnight (e.g. WAKA in Alabama airs it at 2:00 AM CT Sundays, WOF Weekend always airs Saturdays at 6:30 PM but with the consequence of always getting JIP'd or skipped following the 6:00 news during college football season and some other sporting events).

^ That's a given. It happens every season. Although up until 2019, the pregame started at 7:30 ET. It now starts at 7:00 since 2020.