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Running full vs. truncated newscasts after sports overruns


WheelWarrior

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Stations seem to have different policies on whether to strictly stick to their listed schedule when it comes to running newscasts after sporting events that run long, or to run that newscast for the full 30/60 minutes and JIP programming afterwards (or slide those shows back to air in their entirety).

 

The most frequent time this comes into play is Saturdays on East Coast CBS affiliates during college football season. CBS always schedules games to run from 3:30-7:00 ET (sometimes with another one from 8:00-11:30), but I have never, not once in years, seen this game end before 7:00. Most of this season's games have ended around 7:15, and some went to 7:30 or even 8:00. Although the games do sometimes end before 7:00, CBS will always run a sponsored postgame show until 7:10-15. Although whatever program is at 7:00 ET never airs in its entirety if at all, affiliates still have to schedule something in the prime access hour. Usually they'll put a syndie like Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Judge Judy, or ET, but others do local news, especially in the Central Time Zone that would already have 6:00 news anyway. Some Eastern stations do 7:00 (or later) newscasts as a delayed edition of the 6:00 news).

 

What stations have a policy of running the news for a full 30 or 60 minutes if it starts late, and which ones will end it on the hour/half-hour or skip it to avoid messing with other programming? Is there any reason why a station would choose one or the other? It really seems to vary. Could it be dependent on how popular the 7:30 show is?

 

O&O KYW 3 in Philly does a 7:00 newscast and runs it for a full 30 minutes, or until 8:00 if it starts after 7:30. If there's time before 8:00, Inside Edition Weekend gets JIP'd. However, fellow O&O KTVT 11 in Dallas does not run the 6:00 news past 6:30 (or technically 6:27; when CFB goes to 6:30 CT, Wheel of Fortune gets JIP'd a couple minutes in because KTVT always starts it immediately following the news signoff). I'm not sure if KTVT starts the news after the game or if they just do it starting at 6:00 for live streaming or replays and it gets JIP'd on TV after the game. KHOU 11 in Houston (owned by Tegna) also ends their 6:00 news at 6:30 no matter when it starts.

 

Although they don't do it often anymore, when WABC 7 does a 7:00 newscast after a sporting event, it does not always run a literal 30 minutes. It won't go past 7:30 if it starts earlier than 7:10 or so. If it starts around 7:10-20, it will run until 7:45, and if it starts well after 7:20, it goes until 8:00. I recall the ABC college football finale in 2020 signing off at 7:01 ET, and a lot of ABC stations that air Wheel of Fortune at 7:30 JIP'd it about 2-3 minutes into the show following full newscasts, but WABC started it uninterrupted following a 28-ish-minute newscast. I also recall this being the case back when ABC used to leave the 7-8 hour to the affiliates between CFB games; they now run straight from 12-11+ ET.

 

This is also prevalent on West Coast stations that schedule "special edition" newscasts in primetime slots following sporting events that air live on the East Coast. KOMO ABC 4 in Seattle always runs news for at least 30 minutes (sometimes trimmed down from a scheduled 60 minutes or 45 when Monday Night Football is scheduled nationally on ABC until 8:15 PT, but always a 30-minute minimum), but almost-always slides back all its subsequent programming, even later newscasts.

 

WKYT CBS 27 in Lexington, KY does something unique. During CFB season, they do the 6:00 news live on its DT2 CW subchannel, and schedule a repeat of it at 7:00 on CBS, which gets JIP'd. Wheel of Fortune's weekend run gets moved to CW at 6:30 following the live news, since it would never air in its entirety in its normal 7:00 slot on CBS.

 

As for 10/11 PM newscasts, I have never seen any station truncate these, not even FOX affiliates that start them well after midnight following very long MLB playoff games.

 

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I think the short and simple answer is that each local station decides what they want to do.... what is or isn't worth their time/money/resources/viewer impact considering live programming overrun. Station management decides what the programming plan is, and the various contingencies depending on what happens with live programming. As shown by your examples, stations decide to do different things.

 

From a west coast perspective, sports games that air live in Eastern primetime make it so that west coast affiliates need to program their own primetime (since the game covers their early evening schedule), so many stations do newscasts after the game (especially since their 5/6pm shows were preempted), and then fill the rest of the time with other local/syndicated programming, or sometimes networks will provide filler programming (reruns of whatever) for the west coast.

 

 

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In the case of East coast stations, if a football game per say runs till midnight interupting the 11PM news, I would opt to pre record a full or truncated version of the newscast. I wouldn't want the anchors or reporters just waiting overtime for the game to end. But again, Im sure stations have reasons for wanting to go live and full length -- or whatever they do -- post game.

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It really depends on the situation. Traffic/programming will have a plan and several contingencies. I've produced a handful of newscasts that never aired because a football game beforehand ran long. We were lucky to even go on the air for ten minutes (sometimes even less) after Thursday Night Football.

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Usually the rule of thumb is when something runs a little over is the 15/15 rule.  If it's before 15/45, truncate to the bottom or top of the hour or join in progress.  If it goes over 15/45, the program that runs over will fill to the top or bottom and either the pre-empted show is shifted to that time, or the regular schedule resumes.  Key programs may air shifted until a later show is joined in progress.

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1 hour ago, C Block said:

It really depends on the situation. Traffic/programming will have a plan and several contingencies. I've produced a handful of newscasts that never aired because a football game beforehand ran long. We were lucky to even go on the air for ten minutes (sometimes even less) after Thursday Night Football.

 

Do the sales people get antsy about sports overruns? I've heard that some stations are very wary to break into programming to cover news because the sales people don't like losing all the inventory...

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18 hours ago, WheelWarrior said:

O&O KYW 3 in Philly does a 7:00 newscast and runs it for a full 30 minutes, or until 8:00 if it starts after 7:30. If there's time before 8:00, Inside Edition Weekend gets JIP'd.

That's right. Last night, the postgame show ended at about 7:20p ET. After a few commercials, Eyewitness News started, ending around 7:47; IE Weekend was JIP'd at 7:49, so only about 10 minutes of it aired. IMO, they should just schedule an infomercial in that slot, so if they have to JIP, it's not something people are likely to be watching.

 

For a while, on Saturday nights, 3 has aired an infomercial in between the 11p news and their syndicated dramas (used to be NCIS, now SEAL Team). IMO, they could put Inside Edition Weekend there, and air the infomercial somewhere else.

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2 hours ago, channel2 said:

 

Do the sales people get antsy about sports overruns? I've heard that some stations are very wary to break into programming to cover news because the sales people don't like losing all the inventory...

 

Live sports inventory, particularly NFL and College Football, is typically high dollar ad units with large viewership guarantees. So if the sales team is going to get antsy, it will be about preserving in-game inventory. Weekend programming, outside of live sports, is typically filled with low dollar ad units that can easily be made up elsewhere on the schedule. 

 

1 hour ago, phillynewslover said:

IMO, they should just schedule an infomercial in that slot, so if they have to JIP, it's not something people are likely to be watching.

 

 

Your solution might make sense from a viewership standpoint, but it is problematic from a programming point of view. While paid programming may not be highly watched, the time is sold in 30 minute blocks. So if a station was to do what you are proposing, they would have to find another 30 minute block elsewhere as a make good. The buyer paid for a 30 minute bock and will get a 30 minute block of airtime. I know it doesn't sound very viewer-friendly but it is better for the station to JIP a syndicated show.

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22 hours ago, phillynewslover said:

That's right. Last night, the postgame show ended at about 7:20p ET. After a few commercials, Eyewitness News started, ending around 7:47; IE Weekend was JIP'd at 7:49, so only about 10 minutes of it aired. IMO, they should just schedule an infomercial in that slot, so if they have to JIP, it's not something people are likely to be watching.

 

For a while, on Saturday nights, 3 has aired an infomercial in between the 11p news and their syndicated dramas (used to be NCIS, now SEAL Team). IMO, they could put Inside Edition Weekend there, and air the infomercial somewhere else.

 

What I don't get is, why doesn't CBS just take the 7:00-7:30 slot since CFB never ends before 7:00 on CBS because of the postgame show? This has been going on for years. At least ABC's games sometimes ended at 7:00 when they did 3:30-7:00/8:00-11:30, but even then they just decided, "Screw it. Our stations don't always get to air news or programming between the games so let's just close up that hour from now on." Why not just make 7:00 on CBS "College Football Postgame" like FOX does with "The OT", and encourage CBS affiliates to air local news at 7:30/6:30c leading into primetime? I'm sure some will still schedule syndies at 7:30 but I bet many would do news, and it least it wouldn't mean a syndie seldom or never getting to air in its entirety. WCBS actually schedules ET Weekend, which is an hour long, for the full hour, so it never airs more than the latter 45 minutes (though I believe it re-airs late at night on WLNY at least).

 

I'm pretty sure CBS is the only network that will always follow CFB games with several minutes of talking heads even if they're close to or over the scheduled end time. FOX does this with MLB playoff games and the World Series too. ABC does it sometimes with NBA, but not always, and usually not with CFB anymore. Even ABC schedules MNF to 11:15 when they do national simulcasts from ESPN since they don't expect it to be over at 11:00, though some West stations awkwardly schedule half a syndie from 8:15-30 PT. Many just schedule 45 minutes of news but won't run it past 9:00 PT unless the game ended after 8:30.

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16 hours ago, WheelWarrior said:

 

What I don't get is, why doesn't CBS just take the 7:00-7:30 slot since CFB never ends before 7:00 on CBS because of the postgame show?

Because ole Uncle Joe in rural SEC country can't miss his all important Saturday night Andy Griffith Show rerun! (Sarcasm)

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I haven’t seen any big 3 stations cutting a late newscast short after a long sports overrun, but have seen some Fox stations cut the 1 hour newscast down to 30 minutes.  Sometimes stations will pre-record the newscast…

 

One situation I found weird was Lima, OH during the Olympics, where one company runs all big 4 networks…

 

Fox had a 10pm newscast, but IIRC, the CBS and ABC (WOHL.1/.2) stations ran a slate stating that the normally simulcast newscast was not airing that night, but would air at 11:30 or midnight on WLIO/NBC…. I would either re-run the Fox newscast on the ABC/CBS stations, or do something live on the stations… (or something other than a slate…)

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On 10/17/2021 at 3:43 PM, TheRob said:

Paying overtime is a major consideration.

 

Do you think that has anything to do with FOX's inane insistence in 2021 that postseason MLB takes three hours? I would hate to work on an "11:00" newscast and just be sitting around waiting until 12:30 or later to even start it. I'm sure some stations just prerecord a full 30 minute newscast and program it to start after the game so everyone can go home and sleep. TBS slots their MLB postseason games for four hours, so why won't FOX?

 

FOX Hawaii, KHON, always runs its 6:00 newscast in full, and it's the only program in their post-sports lineup that slides and airs in full. Since Wheel of Fortune airs at 6:30 and stays there during DST (it only moves to 8:00 on sports days after DST ends, when Hawaii is 5 hours behind EST instead of 6), it almost never airs on days with MLB postseason games, because the news often doesn't get to start until 6:30 Hawaii time or even later; the normal programming schedule gets JIP'd as soon as the news runs a full 30 minutes.

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1 minute ago, ColtFromGulfcoast said:

KTAL just moves whatever has to be preempted to KSHV, whether it's syndicated shows or at times, newscasts. 

 

They also did that with Wheel of Fortune during the Olympics, but not when it was pre-empted by the US Open or NFL Kickoff game, nor when the Saturday reruns get pre-empted by College Football games that start at 7:30 ET.

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26 minutes ago, NEOMatrix said:

I have a question: What about stations that simulcasts news like WBRE/WYOU? What do they do in the case of sports overruns?

Often they air the newscast that's not affected by sports live, then just roll tape once the game on the other station ends. If both have the issue, first station goes live, then the other (or if there's a Fox/CW/My 10 p.m. show, they can just re-air that that if things get way too late).

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For years now, WNYW in New York has run its late (10:00 PM) newscast in its entirety following sports...

 

...but if the game ends at 11:00 or later, the broadcast is pre-recorded.

 

They could easily move the live news to sister station WWOR-TV instead, where I think we can all live without another hour of Family Feud. But really, if the other network flagships in Market One can air live news after late sports, why can't Fox?

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WWMT airs newscast on CW7 Sat 6PM sometimes Sunday at 6:30PM when CBS has the NFL Doubleheader or the 4PM NFL game if they decide to air the late game and not the early game. Wheel hasn't ever aired on CW7 even for a weekend run do to SEC Football which I think CBS will lose the SEC in 2023 or 2024 when ESPN takes the full slate of SEC football games.

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