Abraham J. Simpson

Or they can run Jeopardy at a better time for the business, given the results of the show have a direct impact on the games that week.

And yet the short opening.

And every single one of those runs relies on euphemisms for body parts and functions for the humor.

Seems like a clear hint. And yet…the same short intro at noon.

What reason do we have to think Sony is all that upset (not happy)? It's Just a simple business decision. Sliding back Kimmel, even under the current strike situation, further than it already may be if MNF runs long, is likewise not realistic. A couple of episodes of a game show airing late at night really isn't that big a deal.

Cutting a highly visible half-hour of their newly touted newscast on an O&O has zero chance of happening. And yeah, I get WPVI cuts a half hour of the early Saturday AM news for the Penn State football show in season. But a weekday newscast? That's not even remotely in the realm of good business options.

WPVI doesn’t even run Daytime J. And even if they do, now you’re irking the Jeopardy fans—and a show where normally continuity matters—and disrupting the schedule further. And given the ratings in recent years, if it comes down to bumping Wheel to late night on barely a handful of nights vs rearranging the lineup and bumping Jeopardy…the right business decision is to keep Jeopardy in its slot.

But where earlier in the day on most stations? They have full schedules for the most part. Yes, some here and there have Daytime Jeopardy. But if we’re talking the O&Os as an example, there isn’t space. Wheel isn’t going to bump the news, the View or Tamron. That’s just not reality. Could the O&Os make better use of—and promote—Localish for these kinds of things? Sure. They’ve used it for overflow before…and sometimes rely on the overnight slots. Both have their pluses and minuses. It’s just Wheel of Fortune. It’s an important piece of their schedule, but when you have more programming than hours in the day, something has to give.

It seemed like a perfectly fine newscast, the right tone for a midday show. Interesting at the very end to see the still image for the noon show. But that’s a little bit of minutiae only a few will even notice. Nice to see after all the time she’s spent as the “third wheel” and doing fill-ins that Alicia is part of the main team for a newscast, too.

ABC has bigger things to focus on, like the network programming, not syndication for a few episodes. No one is somehow doing something to Wheel, nor any specific show. It’s just the nature of the business. Win some, lose some. Ultimately, the benefit of MNF across the network far, far outweighs a couple preempted game show episodes.

That doesn’t really seem like an issue.

It’s like the Phillie Phanatic used too much Sun-In.

Holy cow are the daytime schedules for 17 and 57 wretched.

I guess that was a little surprising, but great to give it its own identity. Wondering if it’s going to be akin to 4 and 5 pm where one is a “third wheel”’who pops in here and there with a story or a genuine three-person anchor setup. And all props to Karen Rogers. All the prep work in the middle of the night, four hours on the morning show, inclusive of the streaming hour, now an added hour daily. Guessing then moon stays as weather-by-committee. Feel like they should give Karen the break on Tuesdays and put Chris on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

It isn’t about how many hours anyone needs, because no one (well…almost) actually watches them all. You jump in when it works for you. I watch the 5 am 1/2 hour most mornings. That they also have the other 2 1/2 hours is irrelevant. And they get all the commercial inventory with a relatively small additional expense that is spread over the entire operation.

Same as it was for years with Jim Gardner. Ludicrous, but so be it. The no-names short openings at noon and weekend mornings are absurd. Sundays especially, we know the team. There is no longer a second anchor. Just put the darn names in and run a full intro. And if Sarah is going to be the only permanent person at noon, ditto, put her name in. If you’re going to use John Paul permanently, great, put the name in. I get the “weather by committee” stuff, though you could cut three versions for the three regulars.