Season 39 Pre-emptions and Anomalies

Just wanted to note that J! did not air on WSBK tonight despite being a tournament finale; it's airing overnight after Wheel. WBZ really picks and chooses when to use their sister station.

This did not run over, so all Mountain airings of Wheel were fine.


Both sporting events ran over. College basketball ran until about 7:10 ET, so WDAF pre-empted this episode twice, and it was also JIP'd on WXIX Cincinnati. Boxing ran until about 10:20 ET, so Wheel was fine on KDVR.


ABC's late college football game ran until about 11:07 ET. Also, stations that air Weekend Wheel Sundays at 5:00 ET when pre-empted, such as WJLA in DC, were forced to JIP it due to college basketball on Sunday running slightly over, to about 5:03, around the start of Round 1.

Wheel was indeed pre-empted on WLS Chicago by Bears pregame. Yet another ABC O&O top market pre-emption that takes viewers away from Wheel and only Wheel...

MNF overran to about 11:27 ET. Wheel should not be JIP'd anywhere in the West.

The Seahawks/Rams game ended just before 10 ET, but that feed switched over to the remainder of the Washington/Eagles game, so all FOX feeds overran to about 10:18 ET. KDVR started Jeopardy! at the Double Jeopardy! round and Wheel should air fine. Thankfully, WSYT started Wheel from the beginning instead of joining it in progress. Late airings may start 18-ish minutes late, so add another show if you have to DVR. WLUK announced that their news, J!, and Wheel would slide if the game overran.

THURSDAY 12/23 (#S-7499)

Wheel is back on all FOX stations on Thursdays starting today!

SATURDAY 12/25 (#S-7305RR)

Merry Christmas!

As expected, Wheel is pre-empted on nearly all ABC affiliates by the traditional NBA tripleheader, as well as FOX by NFL until 8:00 ET followed by PBC Boxing. Luckily, it's not a big blow to us fans this year since it's a weekend. The original airing of this episode was also pre-empted on these stations.

As with every year, NBA on ABC is scheduled until 10:30 ET, followed by a rerun of black-ish. On the East Coast, when NBA overruns, the black-ish rerun gets joined in progress, but on the West Coast, where stations can schedule it in any slot they want between the game and local news, it airs in its entirety, and any locally-scheduled programming between the game and that show usually slide instead of truncating or getting JIP'd. KABC has Slam Dunk for an hour after the game, followed by black-ish, then Wheel at 9:00, which means if NBA overruns, Wheel will be JIP'd after black-ish finishes airing on a delay. This is also what happened last year. KGO has Wheel scheduled at the usual 10:00 slot for sports days, so it shouldn't be affected.

Since NBA is scheduled until 7:30 PT, some stations that normally air Wheel in that slot may be leaving it there, putting it in danger of getting JIP'd. Last year, KATU left Wheel at 7:30, but this year, they're moving it to 10:30 like on most sports days. KOMO moved Wheel to 7:30 last year (resulting in it getting JIP'd), but is airing it at 8:00 this year. 

Sadly, WABC viewers, they are not airing the rerun this weekend at all. It was originally set to air early Sunday morning at 5:00 AM, but that listing has since been removed. This is only the first time this season, and the first time in a while, that a weekend rerun has not aired at all on WABC. Luckily, the original airing of this episode aired in entirety last year on 12/26/2020, delayed a day.

KDVR did not pre-empt the original airing of this episode since there were no primetime sports on FOX on 12/25/20, but as with last weekend, Wheel is at 8:30 MT tonight, half an hour after boxing, and could be JIP'd or skipped.

CBS has absolutely no live sports today, so all CBS airings will be fine unless they're pre-empted for something local. ABC also has no sports on Sunday, so Sunday airings of the rerun, such as on WJLA in the often-JIP'd 5:00 ET slot, will also be fine.

CJON/NTV in Newfoundland is also not airing the rerun at all this weekend, as most of their weekend programming is pre-empted by Christmas movies.

Saints are on MNF tonight so despite not having the game again WVUE is preempting Wheel tonight for local Pregame and Wheel's also Preempted on WVUE tomorrow night due to College Football Pregame. The other show is only preempted tonight on WVUE. Wheel will be seen at 2AM CST tonight and 1:30AM CST tomorrow night on WVUE. Wheel however, in Miami, will be seen on WPLG on time at 7PM EST (WPLG has the game but the other show is the only show Preempted there).

NTV aired Wheel at 3:00 PM Eastern on Monday (4:30 PM Newfoundland time) instead of the usual 3:30. The first airing of ET Canada at 2:00 ET/3:30 NT was dropped for today (it also airs at 6:00 ET/7:30 NT), and The Drew Barrymore Show and Wheel both moved up half an hour so that two hour-long local holiday specials could air at 3:30 ET/5:00 NT and 4:30 ET/6:00 NT.

ntv.ca/schedule/

Monday's syndie Wheel was pre-empted on KSDK in St. Louis (NBC) for, of all things, an infomercial for the PowerXL Air Fryer...