Question about the Games of '89

[BrandonFG]

I didn't want to hijack the "Underrated Games" thread already in progress, so I'll bring my question here.

A couple posters mentioned Talk About airing on WFLD Chicago, in a 90-minute block along with The Last Word and Jackpot! In Norfolk, I remember WTVZ aired the three between noon and 1:30, and a couple years ago I stumbled across this Youtube recording promoting the block.

Was it a thing where stations had to take all three shows, or did some affiliates take only one or two? I do remember visiting Dallas in the summer of '90, and seeing Talk About around 10:30 am; I believe the other two were canceled by that point.

[Jimmy Owen]

In the Detroit market, we got Talkabout from CBC Windsor, so we got a couple of years of it that American viewers never saw.

[Bob Zager]

In the Detroit market, we got Talkabout from CBC Windsor, so we got a couple of years of it that American viewers never saw.

Being a metro Detroit resident, I remember that Channel 20 (then WXON) carried both The Last Word and Jackpot!  I also recall that in 1985, a full page ad in one of the media mags, mentioned that Channel 20 was committed to airing "Catch Phrase," but it never did air.  They did, however, air its mid-season replacement "Perfect Match."

[calliaume]

A couple posters mentioned Talk About airing on WFLD Chicago, in a 90-minute block along with The Last Word and Jackpot! In Norfolk, I remember WTVZ aired the three between noon and 1:30, and a couple years ago I stumbled across this Youtube recording promoting the block.

Was it a thing where stations had to take all three shows, or did some affiliates take only one or two?

I can't find an official listing (New York magazine apparently dropped daytime television listings at some point), but my memory is (and a blog concurs) that they did run in a block in New York on WNYW from 12 noon to 1:30 PM, in the following order: Jackpot, Talkabout, The Last Word.

[aaron sica]

I can't find an official listing (New York magazine apparently dropped daytime television listings at some point), but my memory is (and a blog concurs) that they did run in a block in New York on WNYW from 12 noon to 1:30 PM, in the following order: Jackpot, Talkabout, The Last Word.

I literally just checked this today with old Daily News listings - WNYW had Talkabout first, then Jackpot (and then of course, The Last Word).

[snowpeck]

Steve Leblang to the white courtesy phone, please - found this in Broadcasting from March 13, 1989.

[Scrabbleship]

Was it a thing where stations had to take all three shows, or did some affiliates take only one or two? I do remember visiting Dallas in the summer of '90, and seeing Talk About around 10:30 am; I believe the other two were canceled by that point.

The Fox O&O's and some Fox affiliates (such as WTVZ) picked up all three but it was never a formal block as they were all under different syndicators. Some had them split between stations (Seattle), some missed a show (Philly had no Talk About), some carried only one show (e.g. Raleigh/Durham and Portland, ME only had Jackpot!).

In the Detroit market, we got Talkabout from CBC Windsor, so we got a couple of years of it that American viewers never saw.

I wonder if this played a role in WXON (or anyone else) passing on the show even though they were able to. I can't find Buffalo listings for 1989 so I can't see if they acted similarly, other markets serving cities in Canada were too small or far from the border for this to matter. In Seattle Talk About was on KTZZ, the only commercial station without carriage in Canada (the other two were on KCPQ which did and does).

[Ian Wallis]

I wonder if this played a role in WXON (or anyone else) passing on the show even though they were able to. I can't find Buffalo listings for 1989 so I can't see if they acted similarly, other markets serving cities in Canada were too small or far from the border for this to matter. In Seattle Talk About was on KTZZ, the only commercial station without carriage in Canada (the other two were on KCPQ which did and does).

Several Toronto stations are carried on cable in the Buffalo area so they would have had easy access to Talk About when CBC started airing it.  I don't recall the show airing on any Buffalo stations at all.  For that matter, they never aired The Last Word or Jackpot either, IIRC.

[nowhammies10]

Toronto also isn't considered to be part of the Buffalo media market by the FCC the way Windsor is for Detroit. I recall this affecting airings of Wheel and Jeopardy! on the Canadian side when it was on CBC in the early 2010s; WDIV in Detroit had exclusivity over the rights to both shows, and so they couldn't air WOF/J! on CBET across the river.

/even though WNED has called themselves Buffalo/Toronto for decades and, according to a Feb. 2020 article in The Buffalo News, 2/3 of their viewership and revenues come from this side of the border.

[BrandonFG]

Great info here. Thanks everyone!

[Dbacksfan12]

KDSM in Des Moines aired all three shows between 12:30 PM and 2 PM.

[mmb5]

Toronto also isn't considered to be part of the Buffalo media market by the FCC the way Windsor is for Detroit. I recall this affecting airings of Wheel and Jeopardy! on the Canadian side when it was on CBC in the early 2010s; WDIV in Detroit had exclusivity over the rights to both shows, and so they couldn't air WOF/J! on CBET across the river.

For broadcast purposes, they are considered one market.  If an American show airs on CBC (rare these days), other programming is substituted for Windsor.  There was a time when CKLW (CBET's old call) was active in the syndication market for Detroit, usually for sitcoms or movie packages but did have the the occasional game (like Beat the Clock.)  By 1975, now CBET was a fully owned CBC-affiliate, and slowly withdrew from competing with the Detroit stations.  And there were a few shows that were cable-exclusive in the U.S., but on the CBC in Canada, and were broadcast on CBET, like Fraggle Rock and The Larry Sanders Show.

[jlgarfield]

In the Detroit market, we got Talkabout from CBC Windsor, so we got a couple of years of it that American viewers never saw.

The same can also be said of the Seattle/Tacoma area with CBUT-TV in Vancouver (which is where Talk About was taped).

[TimK2003]

In the Detroit market, we got Talkabout from CBC Windsor, so we got a couple of years of it that American viewers never saw.

Being a metro Detroit resident, I remember that Channel 20 (then WXON) carried both The Last Word and Jackpot!  I also recall that in 1985, a full page ad in one of the media mags, mentioned that Channel 20 was committed to airing "Catch Phrase," but it never did air.  They did, however, air its mid-season replacement "Perfect Match."

Being a college student in the Toledo market at the time, I don't recall any station airing TalkAbout, Last Word or Jackpot either, and Buckeye Cablevision carried both the Toledo and Detroit/Windsor stations.

I do remember Perfect Match on WXON, paired up with Love Connection in late night (10 or 11PM?).  Catch Phrase, then later Perfect Match, aired on Toledo's Channel 24.

BTW. my first encounter with Last Word (and Definition) was during Spring Break one year in Toronto. 

[narzo]

In Minneapolis we had "Jackpot" and "Talk About" from 10am-11am, on KTMA-23 but "Last Word" was on KMSP-9, I think at noon.  The former was locally owned at the time and the latter Chris-Craft.