WheelWarrior

WPXI in Pittsburgh will be swapping Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune starting July 4. Wheel will now be at 7:00 and Jeopardy! at 7:30, matching Youngstown neighbor WKBN (but not WTOV Steubenville which still does J! at 7:00). It remains to be seen how they will handle 7:30 pre-emptions. I imagine there will be a lot more outcry when The Olympic Zone pre-empts Jeopardy! than when it would happen to Wheel. In that situation, Wheel would move to PCNC during Olympics. The Saturday runs of Wheel also get pre-empted during NFL season for The Jerome Bettis Show, so that will presumably apply to J! next season, unless they act like WTWO Terre Haute and swap the two shows on Saturdays only, or do what WTHR Indianapolis does (as they claim CBS Media Ventures contractually forces them to do even on Saturdays) and move J! to 7:00 and bump Wheel. Wonder why they're doing this. Could it be so that people who get both WPXI and WTOV will get two chances to watch their preferred game show, or watch them both in their preferred order?

WDAF really can't decide what to do with Jeopardy!, can they? That's its second time slot change in less than a year, and the first time it won't be aired in a double run. At least it still has the privilege of rarely being pre-empted by FOX sporting events, unlike its sister show. Even with TNF leaving FOX, there is still the World Series whose pregame show will pre-empt Wheel on all game days (and the game will push back its late night time slot further since FOX still thinks postseason MLB can be done within three hours), and it's also possible WDAF may bid for local broadcast rights to Chiefs TNF games (I don't believe they have ever aired MNF games; those typically air on KMBC).

Last Wednesday, due to the tragedy in Uvalde, NBC Nightly News did an hour-long edition with the second half-hour optional, depending on the affiliate. I remember in the 2010's, any time something really big happened, all of the Big Three evening news programs would do optional hour editions. I specifically remember Sandy Hook, the 2013 Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes, the 2016 San Bernardino shooting, and the death of Nelson Mandela all being covered in special hour-long editions. However, I don't recall any of the three doing this since the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. Was this the first time any of them did an hour edition since then?

Ryan Field was supposed to go skydiving on a segment for WABC's annual "summer kickoff" special (airs every Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend), but the plane couldn't take off due to weather. They ended up sending him to iFly in Paramus instead.

^ That 7:00 newscast must have been a fluke or maybe a trial for a potential permanent 7:00 newscast next fall when college football starts. CBS once again had PGA scheduled until 7:00 today, but this time WCBS ran "New York by Design", a localized version of "America by Design", a program syndicated to some of the CBS O&O's. Just like what KYW does with its 7:00 news, WCBS ran NYBD in its entirety following PGA overrun then JIP'd Inside Edition shortly after 7:30. Listings for next Saturday also show NYBD at 7:00.

I saw from a few sources that Good Doctor will apparently be going into off-net next season. It was previously slated to roll out this season but nobody ever cleared it. I'm willing to bet that the ABC O&O's will use it as a replacement for Castle, which WABC and WPVI both run late Saturday nights.

Judging by the descriptions on these listings, it looks like today's episode is the final episode hosted by Ellen herself, but not the actual series finale. Next week (barring Monday, a repeat) will have various guest hosts still under the Ellen moniker, with Friday June 3 being the last episode with any new material. Starting June 6 are compilation episodes of "Ellen's favorite guests".

According to Xfinity listings, it looks like Kelly and Ellen are simply swapping time slots on WNBC and WVIT starting June 8. Ellen is now listed at 2 PM, with many of the June episodes listed as new (probably guest hosts or the proposed "compliation" eps), and Kelly will move to 3 PM as we knew already.

Noticed yesterday that following PGA, which was scheduled to end at 7:00 (but ran until about 7:25), WCBS scheduled a 7:00 newscast and Inside Edition Weekend, instead of the usual Entertainment Tonight Weekend for the full hour. This is what KYW always does when CBS has a sporting event scheduled until 7:00 that pre-empts the 6:00 news, but this is only the first time I've seen WCBS do this. And like KYW, WCBS runs this 7:00 newscast for a full half hour even if the sporting events runs long, then joins IE in progress if there's time left, which I don't believe there was last night. Is KTVT the only O&O that truncates its 6:00/7:00 post-sports newscasts if there's overrun, rather than running it in its entirety and JIP'ing programming afterwards?

NYC has one airing of TMZ Hip-Hop on WWOR (Not WNYW) weeknights at 11 PM, temporarily replacing the "E" run of Family Feud. This was also the secondary slot used for the Pictionary test run. Not sure why they couldn't just sacrifice one of the three daily airings of the half-hour regular TMZ on WNYW (6:30p, 4:00a, 2:00p next day).

Is The Good Doctor still planning to go into offnet via SPT? It was supposed to go out this season along with SWAT, which did go out, but TGD never did, and nobody knows why. ABC just renewed it for a sixth season and it surpassed 65 first-run episodes in February 2021. Also, I can still dream that one of these many voids will be filled with a Wheel of Fortune equivalent of Daytime Jeopardy!, right?.... Right? Drew being split into two half hours is interesting but sounds complicated. Non-O&O's will be able to double run them together, at least, but what if there's a market out there that carried one run of Drew on one station and then the second encore run on a sister station later in the day, like WCBS and WLNY used to do? It's going to be weird having to switch stations just to watch two parts of the same show, if there is continuity between them. It would also mean both runs have to be carried in a specific order; many stations that carry multiple runs of shows vary the order in which they air; I believe WTXF airs Judge Judy B then A, the opposite of what WCBS does.

Only noticed it today, but WLNY no longer carries encores of Drew Barrymore at 8 PM. They've replaced that slot with Law & Order SVU, but the show's website still lists WLNY's airings. WWJ in Detroit also replaced its Drew encores at 3 AM with The Doctors.

Wheel is doing a special week this week where each episode salutes a different city, which they've done before, but this time, they are also doing tie-ins with those cities' affiliates. Anchors from the affiliates introduce each episode this week. Monday had Bill Ritter and Sade Baderinwa of WABC ABC 7 New York, Tuesday will have Dagmar Midcap and Sheena Parveen of KNSD NBC 39/7 San Diego (two days before the show gets pre-empted for over two weeks), and Wednesday will have Mary Bubala and Patrice Sanders of WBFF FOX 45 Baltimore. The other anchors haven't been announced yet, but Thursday's will be from KTVT CBS 11 Dallas, and Friday's from WXIX FOX 19 Cincinnati. All of these intros are intact on all airings and aren't exclusive to that affiliate. Here is Monday's intro with Bill and Sade of WABC. https://clips.clippit.tv/wwgmqe/720.mp4

11:30, actually. Last Thursday's episode was mostly pre-empted by Biden, but the first and last couple minutes managed to be seen. That's the benefit/drawback of J! being able to air in daytime. Typically, the only pre-emptions are for breaking news. You'll hardly ever see J! in Central Time being bumped for sports (PGA last week being an exception), random infomercial airings, or specials on the local food bank. Even KTRK is so unwilling to sacrifice the 6:30-7:00 portion of their news that whenever they have to carry the O&O Localish specials that pre-empt Wheel on the other seven O&O's, they air them at 3:30, their latest pre-primetime, non-news slot, pre-empting Inside Edition. I'm also pretty sure they did not air the WNT rebroadcasts that pre-empted Wheel on the O&O's during March and April 2020 when COVID first peaked. KABC and KGO did not air them the second week probably due to too many complaints from Wheel fans, but did air them the first week.

Could be. For the previous two seasons, any time Wheel of Fortune was pre-empted by a planned special (which the O&O's have been churning out a lot more of lately), it would either air on 7.2 Localish or be delayed by a day for the rest of the week, but the TV guides would never list it, so I would always have to call WABC and confirm it would indeed air on Localish and manually schedule that network to record at 7:30. When they slide the eps by a day, it results in a new ep airing on Saturday instead of a rerun, but the guides would often list it as the rerun still, so fans who automatically DVR new eps only would be missing one. This season, Wheel has been pre-empted several times by specials or local debates, and it would always air overnight instead of a day late or on Localish (and it often started a few minutes earlier than when the guide said it would). I was told by WABC that they no longer use Localish for WABC programming makeups because they no longer want to sacrifice the Localish programming and its ad revenue for ABC. I was surprised to know that WABC waited for Wheel to finish airing, credits and all, before reporting the NYPD shooting. I don't think anyone would have complained if they flipped the switch the moment the Bonus Round was declared a win or loss. By the way, Bill and Sade will be making an appearance in the intro of today's (1/31) episode of Wheel. All five episodes this week are saluting a particular city with all local contestants and intros with the affiliates' anchors. Monday is NYC. Promos for this have been airing since last Friday.

That someone was me. We avoided posting it on the WOF fan group's pre-emption schedule because the last time we did that on Thanksgiving with a few scheduled afternoon Wheel airings, all of them got pulled, and we decided not to mention the specific affiliates anymore in case CBSMV is in fact catching wind of these airings by watching the fan group's info like a hawk (basically I'm doing their job for them...). This time, I didn't mention WDJT, and lo and behold, it properly aired. This is only the first same-day daytime airing of Wheel this season that happened; the earliest airing before this was 5:00 PM CT one day on WLUK in Green Bay to accommodate extra pregame for a Packers MNF game. Also, WCTV in Tallahassee is using their sister station WFXU for WOF/J! for the first known time. They used to air the shows overnight.

WNBC and WVIT have stuck with Access Daily. In Hartford, WFSB CBS 3 carried Oz (don't remember what they replaced it with). Good Dish is going to WCTX My 59 (sister of WTNH ABC 8). WNYW is putting it in the Oz slot, but the series premiere will be pre-empted in the NYC market due to an afternoon college basketball game on FOX. Unlike most other syndies on the duopoly, there is no second run being carried on WNYW or WWOR for now. Wheel and Ellen are the only daily syndies that still only offer strictly one run/airing, right? And I guess Access Daily if you can count that, since it seems to be going the way of All Access.

Here's a video of a Puerto Rican family watching on WFTV in Orlando and their reaction. O&O WPVI cut it off about two seconds after them to a commercial break. wpvinyeprcutoff.mp4

Do you think they really care about Wheel at this point? The articles all seem to suggest that they're only interested in J!, and Wheel would simply come along with it by association. The ABC O&O's have been pre-empting Wheel a lot this season; WABC and WPVI aired some New Years Rockin Eve promo special in Wheel's slot but still aired J! at the normal time. I know J! has out-rated Wheel almost consistently for the past few years now, but are the frequent big-market pre-emptions like this a major factor?

Starting today, WIVB in Buffalo is debuting an hour-long 7:00 PM newscast on its sister station WNLO CW 23 (weekdays only). This replaces Inside Edition and TMZ, which have moved up an hour to 6:00 and 6:30. WIVB frequently pre-empts Wheel for weekday editions of Buffalo Kickoff Live, especially on or before days where the Bills play, and they always move it to WNLO when this is the case. It used to replace Inside Edition. Now that there's news at 7:00, I doubt pre-empted Wheels air on WNLO at 7:00 from this point. My guess is either they will now air overnight on WIVB, or, if CBS MV doesn't freak out at them for airing Wheel pre-7:00, air it on WNLO at 6:00 or 6:30.

Not to bring out the tinfoil hat, but could it be because CBS MV doesn't want Wheel beating J! in ratings (which it did for over 30 years before that reversed)? I mean, I don't see why it should matter either way. They should be using both to compete with Family Feud, but it looks like they're more confident in J! doing so since Wheel is usually a somewhat distant third from them, often because of its constant pre-emptions, such as the ABC O&O's pre-empting it for the CMA Red Carpet every year now. J!'s been through a lot this year, and it's remarkable that it hasn't suffered any ratings dips like Ellen did.

Yep, KLST showed J! early, but followed it with an infomercial instead of Wheel. This makes no sense. Wheel is losing out on hundreds of thousands of viewers because of their strict policies. I've had some affiliate programming directors tell me that they can't makegood Wheel period but can makegood J! because of the fact that it has champions. The one at WRIC in Richmond (which airs J! at 12:30 PM the next day when pre-empted but skips Wheel) told me "The Jeopardy! owners allow us to air it at another time but the Wheel owners don't." ....They're under the same ownership. Wheel deserves so much better.

And what if you watch it on Paramount+ if it airs on CBS where you live? There's no recording option on there, so you would have to stay up for it. KLST in San Angelo, TX is also scheduled to air Wheel at 2:30 CT today and I bet that airing will get pulled and replaced with another syndie too (probably Inside Edition which normally airs at 3:30 but is pre-empted by NFL).

They did it again today! When CBS has the late NFL game on Thanksgiving every other year, KHOU in Houston usually airs Wheel at 12:00 PM CT before B&B since they don't do news that day because of their parade (which pre-empts the NY parade on the network). This year, it seems CBS MV called them up last minute and went "Nope. No Wheel when the sun is up.", so they aired Daily Blast Live instead and Wheel is airing after Corden at 12:37 AM. Also, KTAB in Abilene, TX was set to air Wheel at 2:30 CT today before NFL, but that too has been pulled and moved to post-Corden. Is CBS MV trying to hurt Wheel's ratings on purpose? What's the harm in airing it early if it's distributed to affiliates the day before anyway? If anything, Jeopardy! should be the show that should have more uniform airings, since when long-running champs get defeated, the social media posts from the CT fans come out and then the ET/PT fans are like, "What?! So-and-so loses today? How did you see it already? Spoiler alert!"

When did WDAF FOX 4 Kansas City change their schedule? September? Last season, they acquired Jeopardy! from KSHB (to go with Wheel) and double-ran it at 2:00 (first-run) and 2:30 PM (Daytime run). Looking at their schedule today, they now double-run it at 4:00 and 4:30 (as much of the Central Time Zone does), now with Daytime J! first and first-run J! second. They now double-run Judge Judy at 2:00. I would imagine 4:30 CT is the second or third most common time slot for J! behind 7:00 ET and possibly 7:30 ET (but with only one 6:30 CT airing to go with the latter on tiny KVHP FOX 29 Lake Charles, LA). Maybe they were getting too many complaints from fans that they were airing it too early? I believe it had the 4:30 slot on KSHB. Of course, it still has the benefit of rarely being subject to pre-emptions compared to Wheel in the coveted MLB/TNF pregame slot. However, in the rare case it does get pre-empted, the first-run episode usually isn't made up (and the Daytime ep never is), though pre-empted Wheels almost-always air after the late news. Looking at their schedule this week, J! is completely gone between Wednesday and the weekend rerun at 3:00 AM Sunday. Wheel is not pre-empted Thursday (as long as MLS doesn't run past 6:00 CT, in which case the 6:00 news would run in full and JIP Wheel), and Friday's Wheel will air at 11 after the news. Also, as of Saturday, all three runs of Jeopardy! will now be from the same, current season. I know that has never happened with J! before, and I imagine that's never happened for other syndies that have had at least two weekday runs and a weekend run. Still disappointed in their decision to not rerun the 2020-21 season episodes with Alex. If Daytime J! is only going to be a month or two behind the main run, let's just roll out a Daytime Wheel run instead, pretty please?