Season 42 Pre-emptions

KABC is promoting today's proper episode (#S-8053). For some reason, their tweet says Dean is from Glendale, but Ryan said on the show that he was from New Jersey.

scottman82wheelfan Despite that tweet, KABC is actually showing Wheel on a one-day delay after all. #S-8052 just started. #S-8055 should air Saturday at 10:00 PM PT.

The other two West Coast O&O's, KGO San Francisco and KFSN Fresno, are also showing Wheel on a one-day delay. #S-8055 should air Saturday at 10:00 PM on KGO and 9:30 PM on KFSN.

Every other West Coast airing tonight was #S-8053.

#S-8056 was pre-empted by local Veterans Day specials on at least WANE Fort Wayne, IN (CBS) and WVNS Beckley, WV (CBS). It will air respectively at 1:37 AM and 3:03 AM ET.

The CMA's are a week later than usual this year, falling on this Wednesday, November 20.

As of the 18th, Wheel is listed as normal on all the ABC O&O's that day, suggesting that they are no longer airing the KABC-produced red carpet show, "On the Red Carpet at the CMA Awards" (though it is still being promoted as streaming live online, as they've always done). If so, this would be the first time since Season 36 that Wheel was not pre-empted on the O&O's by anything related to the CMA's.

However, Nexstar is confirmed to still be airing their own CMA preshow; Wheel is listed to be pre-empted on WKRN (meaning it's gone two days in a row this week; good luck trying to enter the LG sweepstakes). The only other Nexstar-owned ABC affiliates that air Wheel at 7:30 ET/PT are WTNH in New Haven, CT (with Wheel sometimes, but not always, moving to sister WCTX) and KMID in Midland, TX. Three other affiliates air Wheel at 7:00 ET, with one of them, WRIC in Richmond, VA, usually opting to replace Wheel with J! in this situation (the other two are WTEN in Albany, NY and WIVT in Binghamton, NY; the former typically moves J! to sister WXXA).

Unfortunately, #S-8063 has a contestant based from Nashville (Mia) and she had no idea she's pre-empted until I found her and told her.

Also, WRIC confirmed Wheel is getting replaced with J! tonight (and presumably the two days with MNF pregame) because according to them, J! is still "technically" outperforming Wheel in ratings (although they also said Wheel did not lose ratings during the transition to Ryan). They're aware this is a sweepstakes week, but that's not enough for them to give Wheel priority; viewers will have to DVR at 2:05 AM ET.