Time changes on network O & O's

[Ian Wallis]

I was watching the June 5, 1975 Tattletales recently (with Gary Burghoff, Lynn Redgrave and Dionne Warwick).  At the beginning of the show, Bert stated that they're now being seen at 11 AM in New York, and on June 16th will be seen at 11 everywhere and 10 on the west coast.

I'm a little puzzled by this statement because it wasn't until June 16th that CBS officially changed the time slot.  I always believed the O&O's carried the network schedule in pattern.  Does it stand to reason that WCBS moved the show to the new time slot a couple of weeks early?  If so, did they move Now You See It to 4 PM until Musical Chairs was ready?

According to the production slates we have access to, the show was taping pretty close to airdate most of the time.  Anyone have NY TVGuides from those weeks?

[SRIV94]

WCBS' move of TT to 11AM was prompted by them carrying The Mike Douglas Show at 4PM (previously they carried it at 4:30 for 90 minutes, then moved it to 4PM for an hour--they then put Dinah! on at 5PM instead of 9AM).  NYSI aired at 1PM (as did MC for its entire run).

[trainman]

I always believed the O&O's carried the network schedule in pattern.

So did I, until I was in college in Chicago and found that WBBM was only airing the second half of "Family Feud Challenge."

Years later, I discovered that for a time in the late '80s/early '90s (because they were carrying "Donahue" at 9:00), KNBC bumped one of the NBC daytime game shows to the overnight hours.

[aaron sica]

Two more examples of out of pattern O&O's:

There was a short time in the mid-to-late '70s (others can pin down exact dates, I'm sure) where WABC flip-flopped Ryan's Hope and $20K Pyramid. $20K aired in the RH timeslot of 12:30, and RH aired in the $20K timeslot of 2pm.

Also, in January 1990, WNBC shook things up a little when they moved "Santa Barbara" to the noon timeslot.

At first, Golden Girls and 227 reruns aired from 9am-10am, with the syndicated talk show "House Party" at 10. Later in the spring, these two switched. WLoD aired a half hour earlier at 11 (supplanted by Marsha Warfield in March), and Generations a full hour earlier at 11:30. Classic Concentration landed at 3pm, followed by Scrabble at 3:30 (which continued to air until September, long after it was cancelled by NBC).

[Bob Zager]

For many years, WXYZ-TV in Detroit was an ABC O&O station.  They always carried all ABC Network programs for that reason, but there were a couple of interesting moves they made that involved the daytime schedule. 

The first was in 1976.  Channel 7 was airing "The 4:30 Movie" from 4:30 to 6 PM weekdays.  Then they decided on expanding/renaming it "The 4:00 Movie" from 4 to 6 PM.  They made some early morning local changes, and started airing ABC's "The Edge of Night," on a one-day delayed basis at 10:30 AM.  In 1977, "The 4:00 Movie" aired until only 5:30 PM for more local news, and in 1982 was cut down from 4 to 5 PM for likewise reasons.

In the summer/fall of 1982, ABC News began an early morning news program, called "World News This Morining."  Because Channel 7 was ABC O&O, they had to carry it, but they worked out a plan to air WNTM's first fifteen minutes, break away to air a local exercise program, and then air the last fifteen minutes of WMTM.

In 1986, WXYZ became part of Scripps Broadcasting, and thus was not always required to carry all ABC-TV programs.  Because of this, WXYZ did NOT air network game shows, (including Bargain Hunters and Match Game), but did choose to air "The Home Show" and for a few years "The View," in the overnight hours.  "The View," eventually began airing in its network feed slot.

[Sodboy13]

I always believed the O&O's carried the network schedule in pattern.

So did I, until I was in college in Chicago and found that WBBM was only airing the second half of "Family Feud Challenge."

Years later, I discovered that for a time in the late '80s/early '90s (because they were carrying "Donahue" at 9:00), KNBC bumped one of the NBC daytime game shows to the overnight hours.

For a good number of years, WBBM carried Donahue at 9:00am. So at 10:00am, they ran what would normally be the 9:00am hour, and TPIR ran at 3:00pm.

[SRIV94]

For a good number of years, WBBM carried Donahue at 9:00am. So at 10:00am, they ran what would normally be the 9:00am hour, and TPIR ran at 3:00pm.

And oddly enough, all on a one-day delay.

Finally, by 1986 (when Donahue moved to WMAQ) they had restored $25KP, CS and TPiR to their actual time slots, but continued to run PYL at 11 on delay.

And at some point in 1987, WMAQ started running daytime WoF at 3 (at least it was same day).  That didn't last too long.

[thomas_meighan]

“The 20,000 Pyramid” and “Ryan’s Hope” aired at 12:30 and 2:00 (respectively) on WABC from May 30 through September 16, 1977. Years ago, when looking through NYT TV listings, I noticed the swap and assumed it was a *network* change — but no.

One sidebar to this topic is that ABC arranged its West Coast daytime feed in a different order between April 1974 and June 1980. In the spring of 1977, for example, it went Happy Days/$20K Pyramid/Second Chance/Family Feud/All My Children/Ryan’s Hope/One Life to Live/General Hospital/Edge of Night, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pacific. I wonder if they decided to do some experimenting with timeslots on WABC to determine whether to change the overall slotting.

More discussion of the differences between ABC’s Eastern and Pacific daytime feeds in that era is found at
https://www.davesfunstuff.com/a-sdn/0018-abc1974.htm

[Scrabbleship]

Also, in January 1990, WNBC shook things up a little when they moved "Santa Barbara" to the noon timeslot.

At first, Golden Girls and 227 reruns aired from 9am-10am, with the syndicated talk show "House Party" at 10. Later in the spring, these two switched. WLoD aired a half hour earlier at 11 (supplanted by Marsha Warfield in March), and Generations a full hour earlier at 11:30. Classic Concentration landed at 3pm, followed by Scrabble at 3:30 (which continued to air until September, long after it was cancelled by NBC).

WLoD by that point would've been the syndie run, daytime ended in September 1989. If memory serves that right, that moved up and 3rd Degree went to overnights,.

Once NBC began pre-feeding the O&O's in 1990, WNBC became a mess. By May, House Party and the sitcom reruns swapped places. Then in September, the morning shows began airing a half hour early (LMaD at 9:30, Classic Concentration at 10:00, et Al.) Then in January 1991, the 10:00 hour went back to being in pattern with TTTT airing at 9:30 AM coming out of a relocated The Challengers.

Two other ones:
The 4:00 ET/3:00 elsewhere games CBS aired in the 1980s (Tattletales/Body Language/PYL) didn't air on any of their 5 (later 4) O&O's at that time. WCBS, WBBM, KMOX, and KNXT/KCBS aired a pre-feed at 12:00/11:00 while WCAU aired them on a day's delay at 9:30 AM.

Three of ABC's O&O's (KTRK, WPVI, WTVD) did not clear MG '90 as being ex-Cap Cities stations which had established noon newscasts they were exempt from having to clear what they didn't clear at the time the sale closed. No stations in those markets picked MG '90 up either, extra frustrating in Philly as WTXF aired the Perfect Strangers reruns that aired prior.

[aaron sica]

extra frustrating in Philly as WTXF aired the Perfect Strangers reruns that aired prior.

First, thanks for the clarifications on WNBC's 1990 shakeup! I remember that well. I was all but sure that WTXF would continue with MG90. Imagine my disappointment when I looked at the TV listings and saw "What's Happening!" slotted at 10am instead. I'm as much of a fan of the adventures of Raj, Rerun and Dwayne as the next guy but I really would have rathered MG90.

[SRIV94]

The 4:00 ET/3:00 elsewhere games CBS aired in the 1980s (Tattletales/Body Language/PYL) didn't air on any of their 5 (later 4) O&O's at that time. WCBS, WBBM, KMOX, and KNXT/KCBS aired a pre-feed at 12:00/11:00 while WCAU aired them on a day's delay at 9:30 AM.

As stated before, WBBM did not air the pre-feed of the 11AM shows--they also aired on a one-day delay.  Trust me--I was around. 

[PYLdude]

WLoD by that point would've been the syndie run, daytime ended in September 1989. If memory serves that right, that moved up and 3rd Degree went to overnights.

See, I was under the impression that syndie WLOD never left WCBS, and only moved to overnights after the channel picked up Hard Copy to air in its former timeslot.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

For a good number of years, WBBM carried Donahue at 9:00am. So at 10:00am, they ran what would normally be the 9:00am hour, and TPIR ran at 3:00pm.

And oddly enough, all on a one-day delay.

Finally, by 1986 (when Donahue moved to WMAQ) they had restored $25KP, CS and TPiR to their actual time slots, but continued to run PYL at 11 on delay.

And at some point in 1987, WMAQ started running daytime WoF at 3 (at least it was same day).  That didn't last too long.

I definitely remember that WBBM scheduling because TPIR at 3pm was my first exposure to the show (that I remember, anyway). This forum help set me straight as to what happened with that period (save for the one-day delay; this I wasn’t aware of).

I actually do remember Daytime Wheel airing briefly at 3pm in the afternoons; I actually have a couple of Chicago TV Guides where WMAQ advertised a local sweepstakes that encouraged watching the 90-minute daily block consisting of The New Newlywed Game, Daytime Wheel, and Hollywood Squares. As you said, that didn’t last long.

The Inquisitive One

[PYLdude]

Just remembered another New York example: when NBC replaced the Scrabble/Scattergories hour at noon with the CC rerun/Caesars Challenge hour, WNBC opted to air Caesars Challenge earlier in the morning; if I remember they also flipped the order of airing.

[SRIV94]

I definitely remember that WBBM scheduling because TPIR at 3pm was my first exposure to the show (that I remember, anyway). This forum help set me straight as to what happened with that period (save for the one-day delay; this I wasn’t aware of).

I actually do remember Daytime Wheel airing briefly at 3pm in the afternoons; I actually have a couple of Chicago TV Guides where WMAQ advertised a local sweepstakes that encouraged watching the 90-minute daily block consisting of The New Newlywed Game, Daytime Wheel, and Hollywood Squares. As you said, that didn’t last long.

Thought of another one while reading your post--for a time in 1985, WLS ran daytime FF at 3 to lead into J! at 3:30 (which remains to this day).  (Then after FF's cancellation, WLS continued to air FF reruns at 3 for over a year.)