[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jan 23 2004, 08:16 AM\'] I enjoyed reading the old thread too, and am surprised at the number of big cities that didn't clear all those game shows (and I thought my local affiliates were bad). You can certainly tell where games fit into the grand scheme of things though - I don't think soap operas had anywhere near as many local pre-emtions. [/quote]
The bizarre situation is that in the really big cities there were fewer pre-emptions because some or all of the affiliates were network owned-and-operated...but then at the next "level" of city size, suddenly, you'd hit a peak number of pre-emptions, and there would tend to be fewer and fewer pre-emptions as the city got smaller and smaller.
The Tampa soap opera pre-emptions that I'm aware of, to give you some idea: I don't think WTSP ever aired "Edge of Night" after it moved from CBS to ABC (they had a 4:00 movie); WTVT dropped "Search for Tomorrow" near the end of its run on CBS (because they expanded their noon news to 60 minutes); I don't think WFLA/WXFL ever aired "Search" after it moved to NBC (they had various syndicated shows in the 12:30 time slot during those years, most notably "All in the Family" reruns); and due to the 60-minute noon news, WTVT also never aired "Capitol" or "Bold and the Beautiful" (when WTSP became the CBS affiliate in December 1994, "B&B" started airing in Tampa).