Here in Western Colorado, the first and only commercial TV station was a CBS affiliate in 1954. It wasn't until 1979 when we got a second station -- an ABC affiliate, and not until the 90's when we got NBC to round out the Big 3 networks.
In other smaller markets, where 3 networks weren't on 3 separate channels in the earlier days, what more-notable game shows did your local affiliate take from "the other network(s)" that didn't have a home in your market.
By looking at some of our archived TV Newsletters from the 60s (I will have to look through them, as there are some great extended articles about some of the big game shows of the time), and some of the Arbitron and Nielsen books from as far back as 1979, it's interesting to see how these single or double-network markets used the homeless network's programming.
For example, our CBS affil aired NBC's Hollywood Squares as far back as 1968 at in the morning block!
Looking at the Feb 83 ARBs, Here was the schedule for the same CBS station, as far as game shows went:
9am The Price Is Right (CBS)
2pm Tattletales (CBS)
230 $25K Pyramid (CBS)
3pm Child's Play (CBS)
330 Wheel of Fortune (NBC) Mon-Thu Only
330 Hit Man (NBC) Fridays only
The Hit Man/Wheel Combo was the most interesting scheduling! And no, the other Wheel & Hit Man eps did not air in other parts of the broadcast week either.
Any other good stories or listings from the smaller, onesy-twosey network towns???