November 22, 2004
Desperate programming

You know, it's bad enough that local ABC affiliate KTRK bumped "Desperate Housewives" to 11:35 PM last night so it could simulcast the Texans-Packers game, but what really cheeses me off is that they couldn't bother to wrap up their endless highlight show in time for that rescheduled slot. As such, unless you set your VCR or TiVo to record for an arbitrary length of time, or you stayed up well past midnight, you turned on the tube today to learn that you did not record as planned. And there's no rebroadcast set for this week, so pretty much everyone in the Houston area who didn't take extraordinary measures got screwed out of seeing this week's episode. Thanks for nothing, guys.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 22, 2004 to TV and movies | TrackBack
Comments

We were victims as well. I expect Dom Capers and Marvin Zindler to show up on my doorstep and re-enact the last 15 or so minutes of Boston Legal we missed.

Posted by: Rob Humenik on November 22, 2004 11:11 PM

What do you expect from the same station that decided to run with "Million Dollar Movie" instead of taking the option for Oprah all those years ago?

If only there were someone you knew who could tell you the right person to complain to...

Write to the General Manager directly in this case: henry.florsheim@abc.com. Tell him how you feel about his programming choice and scheduling decision. You might also want to let him know that you think got a better-quality signal by watching the same item on ESPN instead of KTRK.

If the delay was because they went long with "news," that's the News Director's decision. I can't remember if he's Dave.Strickland@abc.com, but give that a shot. In your own words, thank him for all that extra news that made your diligent efforts in programming your VCR or Tivo worthless.

Posted by: Laurence Simon on November 23, 2004 6:15 AM

Yeah, I was grumbling about this yesterday. I've had to cobble together the last 15-20 minutes of the show from tidbits I've heard from friends. I was going to tweak my TiVo setting, but didn't. So I got 15-20 minutes of the post-game show (whatever) and the last thing my TiVo recorded was Edie telling Susan about Mike and Mystery Woman going to a bar for drinks.

Guess I'll just have to wait for the TWoP recap. Stupid KTRK. How many people do you think actually stayed up to watch all that postgame analysis?

Posted by: Sue on November 23, 2004 9:34 AM

Kuff, I've got a VCR copy if you want it. Email me asap so I can drop it in the mail tomorrow.

RG

Posted by: Retrogrouch on November 23, 2004 10:08 AM

I expect Dom Capers and Marvin Zindler to show up on my doorstep and re-enact the last 15 or so minutes of Boston Legal we missed.

Now, that's funny. Thanks, Rob.

Posted by: Patrick on November 24, 2004 8:48 AM

That's all over now. My problem is that this is a great show but suddenly it only appears every other week now. And now, ABC - after bragging about how their ratings were almost as good for the Saturday night repeat of Desperate Housewives - has taken that off, too. Is this a bait and switch deal? Has ABC lost its collective mind? Now that they have (had) a hit, they don't seem to know what to do with it.

Posted by: Pat Gannon on December 6, 2004 2:50 PM