Season 40 Pre-emptions and Anomalies

Tonight's rerun of #PT-314 is pre-empted on WPVI Philadelphia for a special honoring anchor Jim Gardner, who officially retired last night after 45 years with the station. It will air at 2:37 AM ET.

Syndie Wheel was not affected by this, but WPVI changed the timing of the show to end at 8:00 on the dot to go right into the special following the credits.

#S-7500RR is pre-empted on FOX affiliates by NFL. The game is scheduled until 8:00 ET (counting "The OT"), but KDVR Denver is pre-empting both J! and WOF for delayed 5:00 and 5:30 newscasts and is not airing the shows at all this weekend.

The only other sporting event today that affects Wheel is the Commanders/49ers game on CBS, which is scheduled until 7:00 ET, but only a few markets are carrying it, including most of Virginia and the Minneapolis market (any sports overrun past 6:00 CT affects Wheel on WCCO due to local news). Any markets marked in blue on this map are airing the late game. 506sports.com/2022/16-CBS-V2.png

In Dallas, WOF Weekend is back on KTVT today, and interestingly, Jeopardy! is paired with it (moving up from KTXA) instead of the usual 6:00 news.

ABC affiliates are okay in all time zones nationally. However, Wheel is pre-empted on WJLA Washington DC by an infomercial (bumped to 2:00 AM ET) and on WABC New York by a local special (Wheel aired at 4:30 AM ET Saturday morning).


EDIT: The late CBS game overran to 7:20 ET.

#S-7696 is pre-empted on KABC due to the Chargers in MNF tonight. It will air at 2:06 AM PT.

KABC Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on Dec. 30, 2022, is having coverage about Barbara Walters passing away at age 93.

WJLA once again pre-empted WOF Weekend with an infomercial. This time, Wheel was moved early to 3:30 PM ET instead of overnight. However, this was immediately following ABC's broadcast of the 2022 Music City Bowl. I didn't watch, but this likely ended on time, since the first tweets of the game's final score (21-0, a shutout) were posted at 3:13, so Wheel probably aired in its entirety here.

In Dallas, WOF Weekend moved back to KTVT today. However, it will be back on KTXA next Saturday while an infomercial airs on KTVT.

KFSN Fresno, an ABC O&O, aired Friday's episodes of both Jeopardy! and Wheel tonight due to the Barbara Walters pre-emption last night. KOMO Seattle, KXTV Sacramento, and KGO San Francisco all aired the Saturday reruns for both. I checked KGO this morning to see if they aired J!/WOF in place of the overnight Tamron Hall encore like they often do, but they did not. KABC and KFSN are the only known Pacific ABC's to have made up #S-7700.

Tonight has another national MNF on ABC this season, likely the second-to-last of the season. #S-7701 is affected on all West Coast ABC's and will likely be JIP'd on a few of them. The Buffalo Bills are involved with this game, so Wheel is presumably pre-empted on the Bills stations as well (none of which are ABC).

Praying Damar is okay!

Due to the game's suspension, ABC signed off at 11:00 PM ET instead of the scheduled 11:30. Because of this, West Coast affiliates' post-game primetime lineups may be half an hour earlier than listed.

KABC Los Angeles did 60 minutes of local news instead of 30, so Wheel will still air at 9:00 Pacific. KOMO Seattle is also still doing news as of me typing this, so their schedule likely still stands, with Wheel at 9:00.

KGUN Tucson had Wheel sandwiched between the game and local news at 9:30 Mountain; they aired The List at 9:00, which was pre-empted at its normal time earlier today by college football, and Wheel still aired at 9:30.

KGO San Francisco ran its local postgame program for 30 minutes and started local news at 8:30 Pacific instead of the scheduled 9:00, so Wheel might start early at 9:30 instead of the scheduled 10:00, unless they expand the newscast to 90 minutes or add random filler at 9:30. (EDIT: They opted for the latter. On the Red Carpet aired at 9:30 after the news and Wheel aired at 10:00)


Khalid from tonight's episode is from LA. When I found out what happened at the game, I tracked him down and gave him a copy of the episode in case it ended up not airing on the West Coast for late game coverage or updates. Khalid acknowledged the situation on his Instagram.

The Patriots, Titans, and Steelers all failed to make the playoffs, so their respective weekly programs should be gone starting this week or next. WBZ usually does a half-hour "postmortem" edition of Patriots All Access the Friday after they're eliminated. WKRN typically restores Tuesday Wheel immediately after the Titans' elimination. Not sure how WPXI handles their Steelers show after elimination.

The Eagles are in the playoffs. If they make it to the Bowl, WPVI would likely pre-empt Wheel for a hype special at least once leading up to it, like they did when the Phillies made it to the World Series.

The Chiefs are also in the playoffs for the eighth year in a row. If they make it to the AFC Championship, WDAF pre-empts Wheel for a hype special the Friday prior (in this year's case, 1/27, #S-7720), and if they win their way to the Super Bowl, Wheel is pre-empted for the entire week leading up to it (2/6-10, Great American Cities week; the Saturday rerun before Super Bowl Sunday is usually not affected).

The Bills are in the playoffs as well. Last year, WIVB and WROC pre-empted Wheel the Thursday of any week with a playoff game where the Bills were involved that weekend, so Wheel will likely be pre-empted on those stations on at least Thursday this week (#S-7709). WETM typically doesn't air the Bills specials if they promote a game that airs on CBS, which this next one will.

As for the other teams in the playoffs, Wheel usually isn't affected in their cities for anything related to the teams other than MNF games if anything.

Wheel was indeed pre-empted on WBZ one last time (#S-7710) for a half-hour Pats All Access. Next Friday, it will be back.

As for WPXI, it doesn't matter, because #S-7508RR is pre-empted on all NBC airings from 7:30 ET onward, as well as WTHR Indianapolis, by NFL with pregame. The pregame was originally scheduled to start at 7:00 but was changed to 7:30 earlier this week. WPXI, like WTHR, moves Jeopardy! to 7:00 anytime the 7:30 slot is pre-empted while 7:00 is free, prioritizing reruns of that show even over its own local sports programs.

Even with the Steelers out, Wheel will not be returning to the prime access hour on Saturdays on WPXI any time soon. Starting next week, J! Weekend remains at 7:00 and 7:30 is now "11 on the Ice", a local Pittsburgh Penguins show. I don't know how long it goes on for, but the Penguins have games scheduled through at least April.

Since SNL is a repeat tonight, most West Coast NBC's are moving Wheel to post-game slots. KNSD has it at 9:00 PT, an hour after the game is scheduled to end. When SNL is new, they typically move Wheel to the afternoon if it's pre-empted for sports. #S-7508RR is also pre-empted on East Coast FOX affiliates by college basketball, scheduled until 10 ET. KDVR has it at 8:30 MT, half an hour later. The original airing was not known to have been pre-empted anywhere.

In Dallas, WOF Weekend is back on KTVT starting tonight.