Preempted

[billroper]

I understand why our local network channels would cut away from the TV broadcast to cover Lightfoot's victory speech in the Chicago mayoral race. It's news.

What I *don't* understand is why they didn't resume the broadcast at the point that they interrupted it. Instead, they dropped several minutes out of the middle of the episode. This was true of both ABC and CBS, so my attempt to work around the expected preemption by adding time to the end of the recording on my DVR was a complete failure.

Tonight, we watched one of the episodes using "On Demand". We'll get the other one shortly.

But it's annoying and shows a certain level of disrespect to the viewers.

Comments

[jennlk]

I admit that I'm a bit surprised that there's no way for them to interrupt-and-delay the network feed in this day and age, but I remember that it was at least not-uncommon, especially on stations in small markets that might not have the technology necessary to retain network broadcasts until they could be redistributed.

It's especially common coming out of local sports broadcasts, where "we now join the network show in progress" came into the lexicon.

[billroper]

It surprises me too.

But small markets like Chicago just can't manage these things, I guess.

We have the technology...but not the authority

[ng_moonmoth]

I would suspect that it's actually a contractual obligation to the network to air subsequent programs at their promised air time. So if they preempt a chunk of the 7pm CDT show for a local announcement, their agreement with the network means that they are still going to have to start the 8pm CDT show at 8pm dammit. And they aren't going to try to find those five minutes in the commercial breaks that pay for everything. And if they want to be part of the network, and get the popular network shows that people tune in to see and allow them to make more money from the commercial breaks, they have to do this. Even when it sucks.

At least the networks have learned a few things over the years. They realized they can change the schedule they dictate when conditions require it. So we never need fear another Heidi Bowl.

Re: We have the technology...but not the authority

[billroper]

This is possible. Of course, the next thing up was the local news. :)