[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Aug 22 2003, 08:44 AM\'] That's not good news for "Pyramid" in Detroit. If I were Sony, I'd rather have my show on Channel 4 in any time slot (even late night) than on UPN50. They probably let it go because WL ended production and they had no other game with which to pair it. Channel 4 is a charter station of WOF, and ran "Bullseye" for three years (the last year in repeats) because it got great ratings for them. [/quote]
Pyramid got dumped on WDIV-4 because Post-Newsweek (it's owner) picked up Jack & Ali, and needed a slot for it, since their other talk shows are all #1 in their time slot. I guess they could have put it at 12:30 PM where they have the Jeopardy rerun, but decided against it. Late night is not an option, because they run Springer at 12:35 AM (it's only run, not a second run).
For those of you outside the Detroit market, it's set up rather unusually where there are three distinct tiers of stations: the NBC and ABC affiliates usually flip flop who's #1, the UPN and FOX stations vie for #3, the CBS is locked in at #5 and the WB is at #6. Pyramid did win its time slot against The Price is Right in Detroit this year, mainly because of this disparity. They even ran it in prime time occasionally, since they have this thing against showing Fear Factor. Unfortunately, Pyramid was a victim of the station's success.
WDIV (NBC) has been traditionally syndicated game show friendly, they've had WOF/Jeopardy since the beginning, had TJW, TTD, Davidson Pyramid, double-ran Weakest Link when it first came on and has pretty much had a syndicated game show in it's 12:30 slot for two decades. They've been network-hostile, never showing Super Password, Hot Potato, Caesar's Challenge. The ABC and FOX stations have been game-show hostile, neither of them carrying a syndicated offering since 1991. CBS, having no local programming, have grabbed whatever was available, which has been all of Fremantle's run, Debt, Shop to You Drop, etc.
--Mike