Season 41 Pre-emptions

According to TV Passport and WAND anchor Jacob Gordon, Wheel was scheduled for 3:00 PM CT on Wednesday, in addition to 2:00 AM, but advertising from the station itself either mentioned a time of 2:00 AM or no time at all. Even in Gordon's post, he mentions 3:00 PM in the text, but the graphic mentions 2:00 AM.


www.facebook.com/JacobGordonTV/posts/pfbid0w5x456Y9hr7xv1S9KzFJ9FbfjVZStkwTSi9xsqd3VWYHPoiJNRg1RqWZSn5JRya6l

All four known early airings of #S-7954 and 55 did happen.

One of them was WRDW, which usually aired WOF/J! in the LMAD slot in previous years, but did not do so last year.

The 9 AM airings will also apply to #S-7959 and 60 next week, but the 10 AM airings will not since LMAD will be back.

Pretty refreshing to have four episodes of Wheel air in a 9:00 AM time slot without any trouble. Hope this becomes a consistent thing for this station, if they really prioritize two game shows over its local morning show.


Since this Saturday only has one game on CBS, some CBS affiliates will be using the afternoon time slots to make up weekday episodes. All of the CBS Montana stations have three airings of Wheel scheduled on Saturday: #S-7959 at 4:00 PM MT, 7960 at 4:30, and #S-7692RR at 6:30. WMAZ in Macon, GA has either 7959 or 60 at 5:00 PM ET but immediately following the game, meaning it's not likely to air in its entirety. 7:00 is still listed as the rerun, but seeing they didn't have any Thursday airing on the schedule at all, it's possible the 5:00 airing is 7959 and 7:00 will be 7960 with no rerun.

On ABC, WABC (Ricky Gilbert's home station) is airing his rerun at 5:00 AM ET Saturday morning. They are opting to start Ten Commandments at 8:00 due to a special on the NY Auto Show airing at 7:00. WTEN Albany used to also start 10C at 8:00 to air WOF/J! at the normal times, but it seems they are no longer doing that; 10C is listed at 7:00 with no Wheel that weekend. WTNH in Connecticut is airing Wheel on Easter Sunday at 5:30 PM ET, half an hour after a sporting event.


Overall, four contestants were affected by the March Madness pre-emptions this year, but only one of them badly; the other three were all from markets where Wheel moves to a sister station. March 22 had a contestant from Dallas (KTVT -> KTXA), March 28 had contestants from the Lexington and Flint areas (WKYT and WNEM, both of which move Wheel to their subchannels), and March 29 has a contestant from the Houston area (KHOU, overnight).

How likely is this a policy change versus some stations going rogue or unaware of the rules?

This episode is suffering the same fate for its rerun airing today for the same reason. Winner Drew's affiliate WXIX Cincinnati moved it to 2:00 PM ET due to NASCAR and UFL, but it did not air in its entirety due to being scheduled after a college football game scheduled from 12-2, which ran over. WDAF also did not air Wheel in its entirety today due to scheduling it at 1:30 PM CT following the game and an infomercial, which takes priority on weekends. WVUE aired it at 2:00 PM CT leading into NASCAR.



Also, on an unrelated note, WABC appears to have temporarily, if not permanently, moved Jeopardy! Weekend to Sundays at 4:00 AM ET for a new O&O program, "Localish Life". This program has aired on WABC on Saturdays at 7:00 for three of the past four consecutive weekends; the time it did not air was due to WABC's annual "Broadway Backstage" special. Wheel was scheduled at the normal 7:30 for all four of these weekends, although the airing on 4/13 was fully pre-empted by an ABC News Special Report.

Wheel does tend to get the upper hand over J! and other shows on weekends, I've noticed. Although it's slipped in the weekday ratings, from what I've seen, Wheel is still outperforming J! and Family Feud in ratings concerning their weekend runs.

Wheel of Fortune is not airing on KABC tonight due to the special Eyewitness News coverage.

Yes. KABC has Wheel scheduled at 9:30 PM PT on Thursday and Friday instead of the usual 9:00, following up to an hour of local news which usually truncates if there's overrun. Saturday's airing is at 10:00 PM due to NBA and a documentary on Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford scheduled for 9:00.

Travis was unfortunately affected by the Draft since he watches on WRIC.

Several areas in the Midwest and South were pre-empted regardless of the Draft due to the tornado outbreak.

Draft ended about six minutes early. WABC went straight into news at 11:24 ET.

A WKRN viewer who DVR'd #S-7980 overnight reported that her recording started at the third interview, indicating they started the show a bit early.


The final rounds of the Draft overran on Saturday, with programming beginning around 7:21 PM ET. All 7:00 ET airings of Wheel and most 7:30 airings scheduled after newscasts on Saturday were joined in progress during the Speed-Up Rounnd. WABC aired #S-7735RR in its entirety at 7:30.