[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Jul 26 2004, 08:03 AM\'] Sometimes when they tape a few weeks in advance, they don't figure out the exact air date correctly.
A good example of this occurred on the last "Match Game 77". Every New Year's show except this one, they changed the sign to the New Year at the END of the show. But for this one, they actually changed it at the START of the show that aired immediately after New Year's (the actual air date: Tuesday, January 3, 1978 - it was pre-empted on the Monday for the Rose Parade and Bowl games, since they never hold those on Sundays).
By this time, "Match Game" was more than a month in advance on tapings, so my guess it they didn't figure out the air date until they had already finished taping that particular show. Adding to the confusion that year: Dec 31 was a Saturday, so they might have figured on a Dec 30th air date and thought they were OK. [/quote]
They knew the air dates.
Could be that they thought December 30 was premature to change the date.