Most Annoying Schedule Change?

[Ian Wallis]

In the "golden days of game shows", networks would frequently alter their daytime schedules.  What was the most frustrating change for you?  I'm not talking about shows being cancelled, I'm talking about a show you loved changing time slots.  Maybe it meant you could no longer watch it after school...maybe it meant you could no longer see it because your network affiliate aired a syndicated program or news during that slot.

Got any?

I'll chime in with mine later.

[Mr. Brown]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'246203\' date=\'Aug 20 2010, 06:29 PM\']In the "golden days of game shows", networks would frequently alter their daytime schedules.  What was the most frustrating change for you?[/quote]

WAFB 9 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana moving Price is Right from its regular 10AM Central slot (to make way for syndicated programming) to 11AM. It became especially annoying when Price went HD -- they'd show it in a 4:3 cropped, VHS-quality standard def format. Additionally, they'd sometimes screw up in master control and repeat the previous hour's syndicated programming at 11.

I can't say for sure when the move happened... I do remember at one time seeing the show on at its normal slot, though.

[Jay Temple]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' post=\'246203\' date=\'Aug 20 2010, 06:29 PM\']Maybe it meant you could no longer watch it after school.[/quote]
I think that's what happened to Musical Chairs before its eventual cancellation. Even if I'm right, I don't know whether it was the network or the local affiliate making the change.

OTOH, I was the beneficiary of the opposite change in 1980, when the local ABC affiliate moved Family Feud to afternoons on tape delay.

[GameShowGuru]

My most annoying schedule change offhand was when my local NBC affiliate (WCMH Channel 4, Columbus, OH) pre-empted High Rollers (aired at 11 a.m. EST) for the show "The Doctors", and didn't take "The Doctors" out of that time slot until "The David Letterman Show" premiered.  I don't know if HR got moved to another slot or taken off the schedule entirely, but that pissed me off majorly.

Speaking of David Letterman, that actually was the catalyst to my 2nd most annoying change, because it pushed all the daytime NBC game shows to a later time: WoF, CS, and P+.

[BillCullen1]

When CBS moved Match Game to the mornings in 1978, that all but killed it, ratings-wise.

ABC moved Pyramid from 4:00 PM EST to 2:00 PM sometime in the 70s.

[Ian Wallis]

When CBS moved Match Game to the mornings in 1978, that all but killed it, ratings-wise.

That would be on my list too.  Some of the moves of the mid-late '70s didn't thrill me, as it meant either missing a show because of school, or having to choose between two shows.  When Tattletales moved briefly to the mornings in '75 it was just before summer vacation.  It meant I had to choose between that and High Rollers (back in the days before VCRs).

Celebrity Sweepstakes moving from 12:30 PM to 10 AM on 1/6/75 wasn't good either - I was a big fan of that show and watched it every day at lunch.  When it moved, I was out of luck.  Eventually, the NBC station in my area expanded Dinah! (which they ran at 9) from 60 minutes to 90 minutes and even when I was home from school I couldn't see it.  Luckily when it moved to 10:30 I could see it again.

Sweepstakes ranks close, but probably No. 1 for me is CBS moving Press Your Luck from 10:30 to 4 PM in January 1986.  Very few stations cleared the 4 PM slot in those days and it probably meant ratings for the show took a nosedive.  Luckily many of those '86 episodes popped up on USA in the early '90s.

PYL's move was made in favor of the revival of Card Sharks.  All through the '70s and '80s Mark Goodson seemed to carry a lot of clout at the networks - from what I've read it seems that almost everything he wanted, he got.  Apparantly he didn't want Card Sharks going in at 4 PM because Body Language wasn't very successful there.  The ratings of PYL were dropping by fall '85 anyway, but the move to late afternoons quickly killed the show.  It barely hung in until Sept '86 when CBS gave the slot back to affiliates.

[Vahan_Nisanian]

Oddly enough, in the Los Angeles area, PYL aired at 11:00 A.M. in 1986.

[Johnissoevil]

For me, it had to be while living in Jacksonville, Florida.  Then-CBS affiliate WJXT was carrying the entire morning game show lineup at least from fall 89 to fall 90, at which time they began preempting Goen Wheel for another show, which escapes me at the moment.  The good news is that NBC affiliate WTLV did clear Goen Wheel when it moved to that network a few months later.  Found it kinda weird that Feud and Price were cleared, but the show in between them wasn't.

[aaron sica]

One subject always interesting to me was the moving of Feud from its 11:30 a.m. timeslot to noon, and how stations handled it,  whether they aired it, or just plain pre-empted it.

WHTM (27 in Harrisburg) cleared all ABC noon shows up until 1988 when they started pre-empting "Ryan's Hope", so the rest of Feud's ABC run was intact.
WNEP (16 in Scranton) didn't show it again (save for "Celebrity Family Feud" in summer of '84, the 11:00 am offering) once it moved to noon. They aired "Cross Wits" at noon in June 1980 and later noon news.
WPVI (6 in Philadelphia) left the show at 11:30 a.m. anyway, up until June 1983 when they opted for "Loving" instead. It then moved to noon on WTAF-29 until the fall..When it was never seen again in Philly.
WJZ (13 in Baltimore) left the show at 11:30 a.m. too, until fall, when it was gone from Baltimore (the daytime version at least).
WJLA (7 in Washington) still carried it, but at 10:00 a.m.

One interesting sidenote: In October 1980, "Family Feud" would get an additional daytime airing before the LCS pregame, on at least one occasion.

[Ian Wallis]

One subject always interesting to me was the moving of Feud from its 11:30 a.m. timeslot to noon, and how stations handled it, whether they aired it, or just plain pre-empted it.

Feud was ABC's No. 1 show for several years, but Richard said on the last episode that the ratings hadn't been that great for the past year.  I guess the move to noon hastened the cancellation because of all the affiliate pre-emptions.

In my area, WKBW dropped it entirely when it moved to noon, and WOKR ran it on delay the next day at 10:30.

Didn't bother me much as I wasn't watching the show much by then anyway.

[chrisholland03]

I grew up in an area that had two NBC affiliates.  One affiliate differentiated itself by airing soaps in the morning and games in the afternoon -- so I was able to catch the tail end of Wheel of Fortune then Scrabble and Super Password when I came home from school.