tyrannical bastard 3474 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I was flipping around this afternoon and happened to notice that WPMI (NBC) in Mobile was airing an infomercial for some exercise product instead of Judge Joe Brown. The other night, sister station WJTC (an independent) was airing an infomercial in primetime! Even WKRG, which occasionally (about once a week) cut its 9am news in half with an infomercial at 9:30, looks like they are now doing this 5 days a week for the indefinite future. It seems like during these tough economic times, stations are occasionally pre-empting their marginal programming to recoup their losses by putting an infomercial here and there when they normally have scheduled programming. Is this happening in other places, especially now? I don't blame them....if the timeslot gets crappy ratings, why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProButtonPusher 230 Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 lack of regular sales has caused a spike in infomercial sales due to so many companies wanting to buy time, it at least helps the stations get some sort of income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alaskanews 108 Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 NOTORIOUS WPMI!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
News24/7 3 Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 KNTV Has Dumped I Vilage for info's ugh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario500 3 Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 I noticed this pre-emption of the 3:00 PM airing of "Judge Joe Brown" and wondered if WPMI stopped airing the show twice Monday through Friday. The show aired as usual at 3:30 PM. We'll see if this happens again on Monday. Speaking of WPMI, they still paid programming at 12:30 PM after their newscast. The syndicated version of "Family Feud" last aired at this time before airing exclusively (for the Mobile area) on WJTC. After the premiere week of "Merv Griffin's Crosswords", WPMI moved the show from 12:30 PM on their schedule to 11:30 AM on WJTC following "Family Feud". For some reason, WJTC did not renew the contract to keep "Family Feud" and allowed it to expire, meaning another half-hour of paid programming at 11:00 AM. Recently WJTC occasionally aired paid-programming at 4:30 PM instead of syndicated re-runs of "The Bernie Mac Show". As for the long commercial that aired in primetime (7:30 PM) on Wednesday, that program followed a half-hour special on digital TV produced by WNBC. I guess WJTC decided another half-hour of paid programming was worth more than an extra re-run of "The Simpsons" to fill time. Sad time for broadcasters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1341 Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 And then there's ION, where the infomercials are the programming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw-804 190 Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 And then there's ION, where the infomercials are the programming. 'cept the evenings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1341 Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 'cept the evenings. Well, yeah. But my point stands for the other 18 or 19 hours of the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjohnson 15 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 And I'm so glad St. Louis no longer has an ION station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario500 3 Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Last Friday's additional half-hour of paid programming on WPMI was a one-time occurrence, but "sister station" WJTC continues to air paid programming in prime time. The Mobile Press-Register's TV listings for Wednesday night had "The Steve Harvey Show" at 8:00, followed by a half-hour of paid programming, but all we got was an hour of commercials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3474 Posted April 18, 2008 Author Share Posted April 18, 2008 I dare WJTC to make a promo highlighting their new Wednesday night line-up... Wednesday night is INFOMERCIAL night! back in the fall, they had "theme nights" Monday was Ladies' Night with a chick flick, Tuesday was Retro night with old TV shows like Ozzie & Harriet & The Lucy Show; Wednesday was Comedy night with hour-long blocks of the Simpsons (damn!) & That 70s show; Thursday was "Manly Movie Night", and Friday was the high school football game of the week (which was simlucast in Mobile on Comcast channel 6...don't ask me why). Winter rolls around and Wednesday night has SEC Basketball, and movies on Friday night. Now that basketball is over and the economy is in the crapper, why not an infomercial or two? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3474 Posted April 24, 2008 Author Share Posted April 24, 2008 Add WKRG to the list...they pre-empted tonight's "Criminal Minds" with a half-hour paid special about Underage Drinking. The station's main anchors (Mel Showers & Rose Ann Haven) were in it and did an interview on the news set! The show also featured 2 news packages, and a panel of teenagers talking about alcohol moderated by a counselor. They did identify the show as paid and put disclaimers throughout the show saying it was underwritten by the local Underage Drinking Task Force. To fill the rest of the time, they aired the half hour DTV special produced by NAB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mario500 3 Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Interesting, two stations with paid programming for the hour when your competition includes "American Idol" and "Deal or No Deal". The pre-recorded "Criminal Minds" aired after "The Late Late Show" in the time slot reserved for paid programming and other pre-empted shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAVY 10 Fan 232 Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Interesting, two stations with paid programming for the hour when your competition includes "American Idol" and "Deal or No Deal". The pre-recorded "Criminal Minds" aired after "The Late Late Show" in the time slot reserved for paid programming and other pre-empted shows. White flag, perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.