We've received a lot of viewer questions about the premiere of Apprentice and Deal No Deal this week and why we'd schedule Trail Blazer games at such a time.

First of all. here are the delayed times. Apprentice is airing later in the week because the Deal No Deal episodes must air in order. The premiere of Deal No Deal airs tonight at 7 PM leading into the second episode. The third episode of Deal No Deal, which is pre-empted by the Wednesday 3/1 Trail Blazer game, will be seen Thursday at 7 PM leading into Episode #4 of Deal No Deal. Law and Order from Wednesday will be seen late that same night at 2:05 AM. Law and Order is airing in late night because there was no other place it could be rescheduled this week. Finally, the premiere of The Apprentice will be seen Friday 3/2 at 7 PM.

Now here is the saga. We set the Trail Blazer game schedule in August preceding the start of the season. KGW does not have total flexibility in what games we air since there are other television outlets that also carry the games. We do make the best decisions we can at the time based on what we know of NBC's schedule. As we all know, though, all the networks make numerous programming changes as the season progresses. Once the Trail Blazer schedule is set, it's very difficult if not impossible to change it since the schedule is built around other entities besides just KGW. Thursday is the one night we have traditionally not aired any Trail Blazer game that would interrupt NBC's prime time. Apprentice, of course was scheduled on Thursday nights. Deal No Deal was a mid season show that took everyone by surprise with its success.

NBC made the decision to move Apprentice to Mondays back in December. Great news to strengthen Monday nights...not great news to us for the premiere since we had the game scheduled. Later the announcement was made that Deal No Deal would air for one week coming out of the Games, and those episodes had to air in order because they each end with a continuing contestant. This is about the time when I'm tearing my hair out!

One of the great frustrations that viewers have is that we continue to air promos that tout the times the shows will air...but not on us. I understand this is maddening, and I cringe every time. The reason why that happens is because NBC airs its own promos and we don't always know when they are going to air. During the Olympics, NBC heavily promoted the shows. We produced our own special promos that advised viewers of the delayed times on our air, but because NBC has many more spots in its programming than we get as an affiliate, NBC's promos outweigh ours.

We continually try to find extra ways to advise viewers of when programs are being rescheduled. Check our on line schedule for advisories.

Brenda Buratti
Director of Programming and Creative Services