NBC eyes Saturday for "Kidnapped," CBS may cancel "Smith"

from broadcasting and cable

Changes at NBC and CBS?
By Ben Grossman

One day after Fox, the CW and ABC all announced moves, Friday could
bring changes at NBC and CBS, as rumors swirled late Thursday that
changes were afoot for Kidnapped and Smith.

NBC is said to be close to moving struggling drama Kidnapped to
Saturday nights, where it will finish its 13-episode run.Sources said

Barry Margolin...

Is this the same Saturday night that they were originally airing reruns
of Kidnapped, but pulled them?

Sony may put together a “catch-up” episode to re-launch the show on
the new night within the next couple weeks.

record hunter...

Works for me. I'm going to watch it no matter when it's on.

I wouldn't mind if it became a 13-week recurring show, maybe twice a
year, different kidnapping each time, as long as it has as good a cast
as this one each "season."

Anthony D. Langford...

That's a good idea. Viewers will get to see the remainder of the
series. And it's not as if they have anything else on Saturdays besides
reruns. Who knows, if it does well (or at least well for a Saturday
night) maybe the networks might actually start having original
programming on Saturday nights again. I bet L&O returns to Wednesday

record hunter...

Except it occurred to me between postings that in Pittsburgh, they'll
preempt it for football on Saturdays every chance they get.

SoHillsGuy...

I live in Pittsburgh and have no idea what you're referring to. When
was the last time that any Pittsburgh affiliate pre-empted a network
line-up for football on a Saturday night? And who would that be for,
anyway....Pitt? They play their games in the afternoons, except for
maybe once a year.

record hunter...

They did it a couple of times. I think once instead of that Episcopal
priest show w/Aidan Quinn. Then another time instead of an encore
showing of the show about the lottery winners this summer. Both NBC,

SoHillsGuy...

So, you're talking about a couple of examples over what...the past
three years? That's hardly "every chance they get," now, is it? No
one is denying this happens, but it's not really a routine thing in any
definition of the word as you seemed to imply.

record hunter...

The examples above are from NBC's 2005-06 season, preempted 'burnoff'
episodes of less-than-popular hourlong shows, such as KIDNAPPED. I
think they're quite germane.

As for the blue thing, the only regular example I know of is when some
Pirates home games are broadcast by the visiting teams and their
stations of TBS or WGN, which sometimes get blacked out if the local
station is not carrying the game.

record hunter...

I'll bet it was WGN, which changed places with UPN at some point.

So, they black out their broadcast signal when a local station isn't
carrying a home game, i.e., home baseball games are _never_ broadcast
locally, no matter where you are? [I know nothing about sports, if you
haven't figured that out yet.]

Tony Calguire...

I think you've got that backwards... the cable company is required to black
out the national cable channel when your local team's game is being carried
by a local broadcast or cable channel. It's called "territorial
exclusivity". This usually happens with WGN, when your team is playing
either the Cubs or Sox, and with TBS, when your team is playing the Braves.

Default User...

Right.

It also happens when ESPN is carrying your team nationally, although ESPN
has it's own blackout procedure... they can automagically replace ESPN with
ESPN News for the duration of the game.

Default User...

No, the ESPN games and Fox games take precedence over local
cable/broadcast.

These are the baseball rules; other sports leagues have different TV
contracts and different rules.

SoHillsGuy...

Home games are often shown locally. However, if the home team isn't
airing it, and the visiting team is, these visiting team broadcasts are
blacked out. At least that's the way it is here for baseball.

iirc. And there was some third show I really wanted to tape (though
that might've been the lottery one).

I wonder if you can answer a "sports in Pgh" question for me. I recall
a "blueout" sometime in the past year on either channel 10 or 15 (I
think), because of some game being played in Pittsburgh. There was
nothing on the TV screen but white letters explaining that nothing is
being broadcast because of a live game in Pgh.

A friend tells me I must have imagined it, that they wouldn't not
broadcast anything because of a game in Pgh. Do you have any idea what
this might have been? I'm sure I've seen it more than once,
incidentally.

God, I hate sports.

nights (it was a bad idea to move it, though it's doing okay on Fridays)
and the network brings back Medium or Crossing Jordan early for Friday
nights. However, IMO, I think Medium should go to Mondays after Heroes
where it's a much better fit than Studio 60.

record hunter...

Maybe I'll just wait.

In addition, CBS was said to be mulling cancellation for Smith, a
rookie drama from John Wells that has not performed up to the
network’s expectations.

Anthony D. Langford...

I can't believe CBS thought this show had a chance given it's premise.
Apparently they weren't paying attention when Heist crashed and burned.

Neither NBC or CBS would comment on Thursday.