Which airs first: J! or WoF?

[irwinsjournal.com]

It's noted at the very end of the post that the author mixed up the Rochester, Minnesota and the Rochester, New York markets.

I can tell you that here in the Rochester, New York market, it's Wheel at 7PM and Jeopardy at 7:30PM (Eastern Time), both on the CBS affiliate.   The author's invited comments and corrections so I'll go there next.

[Bryce L.]

When I grew up in Maine, after about 1993 or 1994 Wheel and Jeopardy! ran back-to-back on WVII (ABC affiliate for Bangor) in the 7-8 hour (and still do to this day), prior to that Wheel was on WLBZ (Bangor's NBC affiliate), don't recall the time slot though. Where I am now, here in Lima, Ohio, both Wheel and Jeopardy! air back-to-back on WLIO (Lima's NBC affiliate) from 7-8.

[aaron sica]

In Philadelphia, Wheel/J! have always been on WPVI.  Originally J! was at 4pm and Wheel at 730pm (you'll see my theory as to why coming).

Almost, but not quite. You've got WoF right, but J! actually started on KYW with a 12:30 timeslot...

[Neumms]

Do many stations in the Central Time Zone air them back-to-back? Don't they run news at 6 with prime time starting at 7, leaving room for only Wheel?

For what it's worth, in Minneapolis, syndicated Wheel premiered in an afternoon block with Joker's Wild on the CBS affiliate WCCO. They had PM Magazine at 6:30, but shoved that out of the way the following year.

This is also a rare market where Wheel and J! run on different stations. J! started on WCCO, but they grabbed Oprah from the ABC station pushing it earlier. A few years later, Jeopardy switched to the NBC station, airing against her (now Ellen).

[aaron sica]

In Philadelphia, Wheel/J! have always been on WPVI.  Originally J! was at 4pm and Wheel at 730pm (you'll see my theory as to why coming).

Almost, but not quite. You've got WoF right, but J! actually started on KYW with a 12:30 timeslot...

In my area (Harrisburg), WoF and J! have aired back-to-back, nearly uninterrupted, for almost 30 years. WHP began the block in 1984, with WoF first at 7 and J! at 7:30. In 1985-1986, J! was bumped to 5:30 to make room for Kennedy PiR at 7:30. However, after a year, J! came back to 7:30, where it's been ever since.

[gameshowcrazy]

In Philadelphia, Wheel/J! have always been on WPVI.  Originally J! was at 4pm and Wheel at 730pm (you'll see my theory as to why coming).

Almost, but not quite. You've got WoF right, but J! actually started on KYW with a 12:30 timeslot...

This doesn't surprise me too much that I got that part wrong...I live in Allentown, and with SECTV, I had both Philly and Scranton stations.  Whatever Scranton station had it (WBRE has it now, but could've been WNEP that year) must've been the one with the showing at 430...or then again, I also had NYC stations---darn, one of the markets had it at 430 and I could watch J! at 430...

[aaron sica]

This doesn't surprise me too much that I got that part wrong...I live in Allentown, and with SECTV, I had both Philly and Scranton stations.  Whatever Scranton station had it (WBRE has it now, but could've been WNEP that year) must've been the one with the showing at 430...or then again, I also had NYC stations---darn, one of the markets had it at 430 and I could watch J! at 430...

Well, I lived in a Scranton secondary market for awhile, so I can help with that too. WoF! came along with some heavy advertising in the late summer of '84 on WNEP and settled into a 7:30pm timeslot. It aired on WNEP until '86, when it moved to WYOU and back one half hour at 7. In 1992 it moved to WBRE, where it still is now. J! started out on WYOU, first at 5pm when it premiered, and then swapping timeslots with $100NTT in early 1985 (J! moving to 7pm, NTT to 5pm). When WYOU acquired WoF, J! moved to 7:30. And, just as WoF did in 1992, J! also moved to WBRE. It's been WoF then J! on WBRE ever since.

[PYLdude]

I remember WNBC doing something similar with Scrabble once it moved to 12:30. It would air sometime in the three o'clock hour (don't know what they did with Santa Barbara- I know they picked up Maury and carried it there until sometime in the mid '90s but before Paramount stopped producing it; they also didn't have a noon newscast at that time, so maybe that's what they did with it).

I was *just* thinking about this the other day. I seem to remember around 1990 or so, WNBC moving "Santa Barbara" to noon, and airing game shows in the 3pm hour. "Classic Concentration" was definitely one of them but I'm drawing a blank on the other..I don't believe it was Scrabble..

It definitely was Scrabble because I remember seeing it there. And CC I did remember being there for awhile. IIRC.they also tried a newscast at 3 for a little while.

Looks like a trip to the library is in order.

[TimK2003]

Do many stations in the Central Time Zone air them back-to-back? Don't they run news at 6 with prime time starting at 7, leaving room for only Wheel?

Speaking for the Mountain Time Zone, where we tend to follow the Central Time Format (Primetime starts at 7PM, late news at 10PM), a lot of the stations will have their news hours start at 5PM.

The local affiliates around here do the following: 

ABC: 5PM - Local / 5:30 - ABC News / 6:00 PM Local / 6:30 - Ent. Tonight
NBC: 5PM - NBC News / 5:30 - Local / 6:00 PM - J!/Wheel Hour
CBS: 5PM - Local / 5:30 - CBS News / 6:00 PM Local / 6:30 - Modern Family
FOX: 5PM - Local / 5:30 - Local / 6:00 PM Modern Family / 6:30 Millionaire

In the Mountain & Central Zone markets I have seen, the news hour is traditionally 5-6PM or 5-6:30 PM.  On the 1 hour news channels with J & Wheel, the game show hour is 6-7PM, while the stations with 90-minute news blocks will split Wheel & J -- with J! usually the show that leads into the news or is aired earlier in the afternoon, according to the charts.

[Tony Peters]

This is also a rare market where Wheel and J! run on different stations.

I'm not sure how rare that actually is (though I agree that it is less common than them airing on the same station).  My market (Huntsville, AL), the market to the immediate north (Nashville), and the market to the immediate south (Birmingham) each fit the criteria.  The former two also air Jeopardy! at 6PM (which, aside from the different stations thing, does make Huntsville and Nashville two of the rare markets in the Central Time Zone to air both shows within an hour of the start of prime time.)

[PYLdude]

I forgot about this example until today...until recently we had two stations carrying both shows. Usually the secondary affiliate had them airing in the same order (Jeopardy first) either one or two hours before the primary.

I don't remember quite when or for how long it happened this way,  but for a brief period they moved the hour to air two hours AFTER the primary affiliate and flipped the order so that Wheel aired first. So we had examples of both of the scheduling arrangements.

[benjamindorsey]

In my hometown of Lafayette, LA, Jeopardy! has a fraught history. The ABC affiliate, KATC, has aired Wheel of Fortune at 6:30 for as long as I can remember, and it probably premiered there. Jeopardy did not air in the Lafayette market itself (as long as I can remember, anyway) until about 2004 or so. It started out at 9:00am, then moved to 11am, ultimately ending up now airing at 12:37am, with a number of PSAs instead of sold spots. My theory for the strange treatment is that viewers with cable just had settled into watching J! on WBRZ, the ABC affiliate in Baton Rouge, at 4:30 in the afternoon. (been airing in that timeslot as long as I can remember)

It's a bit strange to see J! treated like a show that's not doing so well in the ratings. Also, in terms of my memory and how far back it goes, I'm 27.

-Ben

[Johnissoevil]

I can give you four markets off the top of my head

New York City:  WABC (ABC O&O), J! at 7, Wheel at 7:30
Philadelphia:  WPVI (ABC O&O), J! at 7, Wheel at 7:30
Jacksonville, FL:  WTLV (NBC affiliate), Wheel at 7, J! at 7:30
Erie, PA:  WSEE (CBS affiliate), Wheel at 7, J! at 7:30