Season 39 Pre-emptions and Anomalies

SUNDAY 10/17 (CWOF #204)

Part of the first half was pre-empted on WBRZ in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (which also carries syndie Wheel) due to a live press conference on the resignation of LSU football coach Ed Orgeron. CWOF returned in time for Melissa's million dollar win.

WOLO Columbia, SC goofed up tonight. They replayed ABC World News Tonight for the first 5 minutes of the 7 PM slot. WNT disappeared at 7:05 and went to commercials. At 7:06 the "We now join our regular programming already in progress" bumper played and Wheel started. It was on commercial through. Mystery round sponsor played at 7:08. This means that the first 2 Toss-Ups and Round 1 of tonight's show was preempted here in Columbia

Various tweets from last night mention Wheel (among other syndies) not airing on WTOV, WSBT, or KVII.

WEDNESDAY 10/20 (#S-7453)

The Sinclair Saga, Day 3


Of the Sinclair stations that did not air Wheel yesterday, the ones crossed out have resolved most of their issues and did air it today.

WPBN is still unable to program local commercials, as is KDBC in El Paso. The latter cut off the first few seconds of Wednesday's episode, starting it on "Of!" They did not air the slate today, but they did air the slate for J! (Show #8493, VTR 9/10, for those curious).

Didn't make a post for yesterday, but it looks like Wheel was back on KHQA by then because there were no complaints on their Facebook page about missing shows, but there were on Thursday. Syndie programming is still down on WSBT, WGFL, and KVII.

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SATURDAY 10/23 (#S-7353RR)

WABC moved Weekend Wheel back to 5:30 AM Saturday morning this weekend, but Jeopardy! fans still have to wait until 4:30 AM Sunday morning. The scheduling for both appears to be random at this point.

College football on CBS overran to 7:15-20ish as usual. ABC actually didn't significantly run over; most stations were able to start programming or local news at 11:01 ET.

KAEF in Eureka no longer puts Wheel immediately after college football at 8:00 PT on Saturdays. They now air Judge Judy at 8:00 (or possibly JIP it after the game) and Wheel follows at 8:30. They started Judy from the beginning, so I don't know if they would run it in full even if the game ran over and slide or JIP Wheel.

I still need to go through the ABC's, but I have noticed that WJLA in Washington, DC is now consistently airing Weekend Wheel Sundays at 5:00 PM Eastern. I know for the first CFB weekend, it aired overnight, and in most previous seasons, it didn't air at all until the sport was done. It appears that more stations air airing Weekend Wheel on Sundays this CFB season.


Three "double pre-emptions" for this episode:

On WMBD in Peoria, Illinois (CBS), the original airing of this episode on March 3 was pre-empted by the Peoria Candidates Forum. This rerun was pre-empted by a pre-taped concert from the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. While the original airing was bumped to 12:35 AM Central, the rerun airing is not airing at all for the weekend.

On WKRN in Nashville (ABC), the original airing was pre-empted by a local special on the one-year anniversary of a tornado and aired at 12:07 AM Central. The rerun, as most of them have during CFB season, will air Sunday at 4:30 PM. WKRN is much more consistent with scheduling the CFB season reruns this year. Last season, it was in a different time slot every weekend, but Sundays at 4:30 was the most common. This is the only one of the three "double pre-emption" stations that aired both airings at all.

Likewise, WTNH in New Haven (ABC) pre-empted this episode the first time by a COVID vaccine special and didn't air it at all. Most CFB reruns air Sundays at 1:30 PM Eastern. However, that time slot is pre-empted by ABC/ESPN coverage of Formula 1 Racing, so this one will air at 5:30 PM on Sunday, two and a half hours before CWOF.


5:00 PM Eastern airings on Sunday will be affected if Formula 1 runs long.

Oh, joy...

Thursday's Wheel was pre-empted on WBNS in Columbus, Ohio (CBS) because it was replaced with the other show so a special could air in that show's slot. www.dispatch.com/story/entertainment/2021/10/19/channel-10-air-special-focusing-domestic-violence/8452737002/

WBNS also does this every Saturday during CFB season or whenever CBS has a sporting event that runs until 7:00 ET so they can air a newscast at 7:00, air the other game show at 7:30, and bump Wheel to 1:00 AM Monday morning. And no, they do not run the 7:00 news for a full 30 minutes; they always end it at 7:30 so that show can air in its entirety as long as the sport is over.

After everything that happened on J! over the past few months, we're basically back to the late Friedman era. J! is back to getting all the priority, all the controversy blew over, and Wheel is back to being almost-always third in the ratings.

SUNDAY 10/24 (CWOF #101R)

The second Bonus Round did not air on WPDE in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which is a Sinclair station. According to a viewer, during the commercial break before it, it cut to a replay of an earlier local newscast, which continued into the 9:00 hour and pre-empted at least part of Supermarket Sweep, which was also a season premiere repeat. Other Sinclair station airings of CWOF were fine tonight.