What happens when a network affiliate goes rogue and decides to air a college basketball game instead of LOST? Well it ain’t pretty. The following announcement appeared on WWAY-TV’s website under “Programming Notes”. The station is an ABC Affiliate in Wilmington, North Carolina.
We will be airing an ACC game Tuesday night from 9:00 pm – 11:00 pm (UNC vs. Georgia Tech)
Lost will air at 1:06 am Tuesday Night / Wednesday Morning.
The Forgotten will air at 2:06 am.
You can also watch these shows Wednesday via the ABC Video Player – which is on the top right side of www.wwaytv3.com.
Clearly the station has lost their way because the post received a flurry of negative comments, like the one listed below.
Losers instead of Lost
Submitted by BooHoo (not verified) on 16 February 2010 – 1:00pm.I’m a life-long Carolina fan and I know a lame season when I see it. I’ve spent five years working on the Lost puzzle and now, here at the end, you’re going to jerk true-hearted ABC programming fans around like this?
If I can see it online tomorrow then I will start watching whatever is left that I like on ABC that way.
It’s been real……
Based on the date of the announcement it appears this was a last minute decision. Since local affiliates rely on ad dollars, I’m curious if the station sold ads during that time slot for the highly rated LOST and then subbed in the basketball game? If they did, then they’ll have more than irate viewers to contend with.
Dumb Dumb Dumb.
If WWAY had warned viewers about the change earlier in the week, we could have made other plans, but the station pulled the old “bait and switch.” When we were rudely surprised by the loss of LOST at showtime, my friend and I searched for information on the web and found the station’s last minute “program note.” We read the irate messages from other viewers and tried to post statements to express our own displeasure, but the site would not even accept them. Too full, perhaps?
This morning, I tried to find the page to reenter my objection, but the station had removed the programming note, thereby deleting every last letter of censure from viewers. My guess is that the station was embarrassed by all the negative responses they received for moving LOST and plan to pretend the incident never happened.
I watched the show on DVR tonight, but it was not as enjoyable. My friend and I prefer to watch together and discuss the new developments during commercials.
WWAY is officially my least favorite local channel, based upon their poor decision. Further errors on their part may inspire a switch to satellite service. Surely other ABC affiliates will not be as foolish.
[...] much as I enjoy some college basketball, I would not be happy if my local affiliate decided to do this. As a former North Carolina resident, I can understand the thinking that probably went into this [...]