I’ve heard of situations where local network affiliates have declined to broadcast certain controversial episodes of certain series, or even whole series (The Book of Daniel, for example).
How common is this? Can anyone provide some other examples of episodes, or whole series, that network affiliates refused to air? I’d be specifically interested in hearing about cases where the network declined to air the show for reasons other than the usual reasons (nudity, sexual content, fear of offending certain religious or minority groups, etc.), and instead declined to air the show simply because it was too stupid.
Stupid often gets good ratings, so no one in the business is going to hold that against the network.
It’s rare and generally happens when something is particularly controversial. For instance, 8 ABC affiliates refused to air the premiere of Soap, and most of those relented when it was clear the show as a hit.
Sometimes an affiliate will preempt network programming for their own – things like telethons or a special program or even a sporting event (the local Fox affiliate used to run Yankee baseball games on Friday nights). These are more likely to be done during rerun season.
The NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City (KSL-TV) has refused to air Saturday Night Live for many many years.
Another station in town has picked it up and is getting good ratings with it.
They refuse to air it because content tends to conflict with the owner’s religious views (the owner is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).
In recent years I know that local stations have refused to run Book of Daniel and also the Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. The local affiliate also didn’t show Cavemen this year, replacing it with “The Jeff Fisher Show” (an interview with the coach of the Nashville Titans).
I wouldn’t call it common, but it happens often enough.
A few years ago, Sinclair Broadcasting affiliates pre-empted an episode of Nightline dealing with the Iraq war because management didn’t like it. Not long afterward Belo-owned stations pre-empted a segment (not the whole episode, just a segment) of 60 Minutes.
I’ve also seen stations time-shift programs they thought were controversial.
Like RealityChuck said, the most common reason is because the local station wants to run its own programming. This is common enough that network affiliation contracts usually have some clause about how it can be done.
But taking off a program because it was stupid? Never heard of that, unless the program was both stupid AND low-rated.
After the “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl, several ABC affiliates refused to air **Saving Private Ryan ** on Memorial Day, claiming they were concerned about violating FCC regulations.
Yes, the Orlando(ish) affiliate was one of them. :mad:
When NYPD Blue ran for it’s first season the local ABC station in Dallas refused to carry it. Instead it went to channel 21 which was, Fox I think, but later it becamse the WB and Channel 4 became Fox. Or something like that. It’s weird.
I always kinda wondered when the line was officially crossed for KSL (the NBC affiliate). Because growing up, I always stayed up and watched SNL on NBC. Things changed sometime in the past ten years, because I was really surprised when I learned that the CW channels airs SNL here.
Many TV stations will preempt a network broadcast if they have sold that time locally.
Some examples:
a telethon (MDA, Cystic Fibrosis, Children’s Miracle Network, Variety Club) (technically telethons are not sold),
a Billy Graham crusade,
sometimes an informercial,
a movie that they’ve purchased,
sports pre-game programming (which may be produced locally)
news or documentary programming (locally produced)
In the early '80s, when David Letterman’s Late Night first came on NBC, WHO-TV in Des Moines passed it up in favor of…reruns of Barney Miller. Yep, that’s right, reruns.
When SNL started around here, the local NBC affiliate didn’t show it at all the first season, opting instead for reruns of Sherlock Holmes movies. I was only able to catch the first season by getting the weak signal from a station in Utica, 90 miles away.
But back then, network affiliates generally ran their own programming on Saturday night and didn’t want to give up the airtime. They probably made more money showing old movies than SNL. Also, there a rules that limit the number of local preemptions you can make, the rules only apply to prime time, not late night.
A couple of causes of declining to air network programming that have not been noted:
Cases when a network did not broadcast in a particular area. When this occurred, stations that were nominally affiliates of another network would air programing from the network not in the area, causing schedule alterations.
Airing of syndicated programming. One of the reasons that networks don’t program as much in the daytime as they used to is due to the tendency of local affiliates (especially outside the major cities) to air syndicated programming of various sorts instead of the network feed.