Season 35 Pre-emptions Thread

Last Friday's episode (Lynelle/Barron/Rei) never aired in the Philadelphia market. Apparently whoever works weekends at WPVI didn't get the memo that Wheel had been put on a one-day delay because of the Christmas NBA pre-emption, so this week's Season 34 rerun (Jahneille/Teri/Arnie) still aired on Saturday.

Next Tuesday's episode, January 30, will be pre-empted on all Pacific Time Zone stations due to the State of the Union address, scheduled for 6-8PM PT.

Most ABC affiliates will be airing Wheel in the 9PM hour and most CBS and NBC affiliates in the 10PM hour.

Bad news for NBC viewers...

Due to the 2018 Winter Olympics, Wheel will be pre-empted on most NBC affiliates for 12 shows in a row between February 8 and 23. NBC viewers will miss out on the final two shows of Great American Cities week, the full Disney World Valentine's week, and the full Delicious Destinations week.

Though the Olympics themselves don't start until 8:00 Eastern in primetime, NBC is preceding each broadcast with "The Olympic Zone" at 7:30 Eastern. Unlike other pre-emptions, there isn't much room to move Wheel or other programs overnight because Olympic encores will be airing most nights until 4:30 AM Eastern. Weekends have more or less the same Olympic schedule as weekdays, so there is little room to delay Wheel to a weekend. Most stations will not be bothering with Wheel at all during this time.

All time zones will be affected because NBC's nighttime Olympics broadcast will be taking up all of primetime. The only unaffected markets will be the few that air Wheel on NBC at 7:00 Eastern instead of the more common 7:30/6:30 Central, and like with Thursday Night Football, some stations will probably move Jeopardy! to air at 7:00 instead.


7:30 PM Eastern/6:30 PM Central has quickly become a deadly timeslot for syndication this year.

The episodes of J! airing from February 19-April 6th were pushed two weeks back to February 5-March 23. College tourney would have aired February 5-16 if not for ALex's brain surgery. Interesting that J! would choose to schedule a tourney during possible preemptions on NBC stations for the Olympics.

The 7:30/6:30 Central program "The Olympic Zone" appears to be optional.

KSDK in St. Louis will be showing first-run Wheel at 3:30 AM on Olympic days immediately after the overnight encore, except for Friday 2/9 where it will air at its usual 6:30 PM time instead of The Olympic Zone. The Saturday reruns will air Sunday mornings at 2:30 AM, also after Olympic encores.

WXIA in Atlanta will be moving both Wheel and Jeopardy! to sister station MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL on most Olympic days due to an additional local Olympic special airing at 7:00 Eastern, but Wheel will remain on WXIA at 7:00 on Friday 2/9, where said special will air at 7:30 instead with no Olympic Zone.

WHO in Des Moines still has Wheel scheduled for 6:30 on all of the Olympic days, even Saturdays.

WPVI did not pre-empt anything tonight. However, a local special on the Eagles did pre-empt Wheel back on 1/19 (David/Jess/Crystal), but not Jeopardy! of course...

I think Jeopardy’s returning champions have more of a reason to not be preempted. 

Seems they're letting stations air Wheel early after all. At least three stations on the West Coast will be doing so, so watch out for spoilers on social media before 7:00 Eastern.


Yuma, Arizona
KYMA will be airing Wheel at 4:00PM MT on most Olympic days, except on Friday 2/9, where that day's episode will air that morning at 5:30AM MT, a whopping 11 1/2 hours before the East Coast. On Saturdays, Wheel will air at 5:30PM MT.

Tri-Cities, Washington
KNDO and KNDU will be airing Wheel at 2:30PM PT on weekdays, an hour and a half before anyone on the East Coast will see it. Wheel will not be seen on Saturdays.

Spokane, Washington
KHQ will be airing Wheel at 3:00PM PT on weekdays, an hour before the East Coast. Wheel will not be seen on Saturdays.



As for some other affiliates' stances...

Memphis, Tennessee
WMC will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

Madison, Wisconsin
WMTV will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

Evansville, Indiana
WFIE will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

Decatur, Illinois
WAND will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

Lubbock, Texas
KCBD will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

Huntsville, Alabama
WAFF will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

Paducah, Kentucky
WPSD will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

Superior, Wisconsin / Duluth, Minnesota
KBJR will still be airing Wheel at 6:30 CT on all Olympic days, including Saturdays.

San Diego, California
On all Olympic days, Wheel is being moved to KNSD's subchannel, a Cozi TV affiliate. Wheel will be seen at its normal 7:00PM PT time on weekdays and 6:00PM on Saturdays.

Eastern Iowa
KWWL will air Wheel at its normal time of 6:30 CT on Friday 2/9. On all other Olympic days including Saturdays, Wheel is being moved to KWWL's CW affiliate subchannel at its normal time.

Indianapolis, Indiana
Wheel normally airs at 7:00 ET on WTHR. Except on Friday 2/9, Wheel will be replaced with Jeopardy! and Wheel will instead air at 7:30 on sister station MeTV affiliate WALV. Wheel will not be seen on Saturdays on either station; WTHR still replaces it with Jeopardy!.

Rockford, Illinois
Wheel has been moved to WREX's CW affiliate subchannel at 9:00PM CT.

Austin, Texas
Wheel will not be seen on Thursday 2/8 nor on Saturdays. On Friday 2/9, Wheel will air on KXAN at its normal time of 6:30 CT. From 2/12 onwards, Wheel will be moved to sister station MyNetworkTV affiliate KBVO.

Shreveport, Louisiana
KTAL has moved all episodes of Wheel to 3:30AM CT the following morning, except for Friday 2/16, which will air at 4:00AM.

Detroit, Michigan (EDIT: See post below)
WDIV is only airing Wheel on Friday 2/9 and on Saturdays. On all other Olympic days, it is replaced with Jeopardy!.

Santa Barbara, California
KSBY is only airing Wheel on Friday 2/9 at 12:30PM PT.

Charlotte, North Carolina
WCNC is only airing Wheel on Friday 2/9.

Plattsburgh, New York
WPTZ is only airing Wheel on Friday 2/9.

Clarksburg, West Virginia
WBOY is not airing Wheel at all.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (EDIT: See post below)
WPXI is not airing Wheel at all.

Because one of today's contestants is local to the area, Santa Barbara's KSBY will be showing today's episode at 12:30PM PT. They will not be airing any other pre-empted episodes.