One time, the Broncos were getting stomped pretty bad, so NBC switched to the Dolphins Patriots game(this was in 1992). have you ever seen the network do that before?
Sure I’ve seen it happen. The NFL has some pretty complicated rules written into their broadcasting contracts as to when a network can cut away. I don’t think they can ever cut away from a team that’s being broadcast in their home market, so if the Bears are beating the Packers 73-0 at halftime, both Chicago and most of Wisconsin are stuck with that game for the duration, but affiliates in Miami can switch to Lions vs Vikings.
I’ve seen that a few times. I also saw the Heidi game when I was a kid where they didn’t switch to another game, they just switched to a movie at the end of the scheduled time. I watch the Red Zone now, don’t have to worry about it.
Yep, I’m in Canada so it happens all the time. Here you have the US networks, the Canadian networks, and the cable companies all switching signals during every commercial break to get in national or local advertising, news, etc… They get sloppy sometimes and if a game runs over their time slot they may not return to it especially if there’s another game starting.
I remember back in the early 80’s when the Montreal Expos were vying for the division title they cut away to a commercial between innings and never came back, then a movie then began to roll.
Apparently, all the crew, technicians, etc… picked that moment to walk off the job in a labour dispute!?
Yup, this was one of the benefits of living in Los Angeles when it had no NFL team - while they’d usually start out showing the Raiders or Chargers, they’d switch to a different (closer) game when the blowout inevitably started. Now all the poor fans in LA will be stuck watching boring Rams games!
Happens fairly regularly during the first two rounds of the women’s NCAA tournament.
I don’t know about pro football, but they do that in college games sometimes if one side is really laying into another, and there’s a “big” game scheduled to start and be broadcast on that channel.
Aye, this is how I understand it, with NFL games. I’m a Packers fan, living in Chicago, so if there’s a Packer game that’s being broadcast here (and it’s not against the Bears), and the game winds up being a blowout, there’s a non-zero chance that it’ll get switched in the latter part of the game.
Similarly, if a Packer game is being shown here in the early (noon) slot, and it runs long, it can get cut off if the same network has the doubleheader game, as the Chicago station will switch to the 3:15 game.
A few years ago a Red Sox vs Yankees game ran late because of the inevitable pitching changes and walks, maybe even a rain delay, on a Saturday game on FOX. When it got to 700 PM, they switched to the NASCAR race because the contract called for them to broadcast that race at that time.
In 1979 NBC had the Saturday baseball contract. In a game between the lowly Mets and decent Cubs, it was 6-4 Mets going into the 9th. At 5 PM (or whatever) NBC switched to some Olympic time trials with Bryant Gumbel telling viewers this game wasn’t important but time trials for swimming or whatever for next year’s Olympics were. Turned out they weren’t: Jimmy Carter cancelled (or put pressure on) America going to 1980 Olympics in Moscow in protest of Afghanistan invasion by the Soviet Union.
Mets held on to the win.
I saw something the opposite, where the network delayed a game start to keep airing another game.
The Vancouver Grizzlies were slated to play the LA Lakers in Vancouver. Game was to start at about 8 pm Vancouver time.
But you see, the Canadian women’s curling championship was on somewhere in Atlantic Canada, and an important game in the round-robin was on and had gone into extra ends. (Note, not the play-offs, just the round-robin.)
So the CBC announced that the NBA game would be delayed until after the curling match was done.
I tried to imagine the American broadcasters explaining that to the LA market: “Well, you see, the Lakers game is delayed because of a … curling ? … game in … Atlantic Canada.”
“Yes, apparently curling is bigger than the NBA in Canada.”
“No, we don’t know how much longer it will take. Something about an extra end ? and who has the … hammer ? going home ?”
“We’ll let you know as soon as we get the feed from Vancouver.”
All of which may explain why the NBA no longer plays in Vancouver. 
But you will be able to see the genius :eek: that is Jeff Fisher week in and week out.
I think that MLB got mad enough at NBC that they changed the contract to require that the game be aired to their conclusion. That’s why tennis(like the Family Circle Cup) often got the short end if NBC had baseball. FOX does that too expect for NASCAR, as you mentioned. Thre was one year that a game lasted so long, it wiped out FOX’s prime time shows.