wndu

Chuck" will not be seen tonight, at least not in our neck of the woods.

Instead of the 11th episode of the freshman series that centers around a computer geek turned reluctant spy, WNDU-TV viewers will get an hour-long Billy Graham special about his wife, "Celebrating Ruth Bell Graham."

No offense to Graham, his wife or their life's work, but does this move make any sense to anyone who watches TV?

The episode that should air tonight, "Chuck Vs. The Crown Vic," is the final new episode of 2007. Just last week NBC ordered a full-season pickup of the freshman series, and the show has been nominated for a People's Choice Award.


What's worse is that WNDU's only scheduled airing of the lost "Chuck" episode is 3:05 a.m. Monday night/Tuesday morning. So unless you fire up the DVR or follow the series on NBC's Web site, you're out of luck.

To WNDU's credit, the station originally slated Graham to air Wednesday but a super-size, two-hour "Deal Or No Deal" forced the station to find a new night and time. The catch: It had to air this week.

Tuesday was out because of a two-hour "Biggest Loser." And WNDU apparently thought more highly of Thursday's comedy block of "My Name is Earl," "30 Rock" and "Scrubs," (all new episodes), and a rerun of "The Office." So, they dumped "Chuck."

The question that has yet to be answered is why not bump Friday's one-hour "Deal Or No Deal" or Saturday's repeat of the "Chuck" pilot?

Graham's own Web site (www.billygraham.org) said the special could be broadcast between Dec. 1 and Dec. 9. In fact, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids is airing Graham at 8 p.m. Friday.

Seems like a smart move.
Thank goodness for reruns of Law and Order reruns. Wndu has gotten such a fat head ever since they got one of the bigger storms correct. But if I remember last week Gordy keep calling for snow all week. Must be job security. The station doesn't care what us little people want.

Posted by Joe Tepe at 8:04 am on Tuesday, December 04
In this day and age of DVRs, VCRs, Tivos, etc...Does anyone actually really watch LIVE tv anymore? So, what's the big deal, we have to set our recorders to tape it at 3AM. Big whoop. There are other things to worry about.

Oh yeah, I guess this Tribune writer must get paid the big bucks to afford a nice DVR! The rest of us poor folk still have VCRs, sorry.

Posted by Matt Benedict at 10:48 am on Tuesday, December 04
Hi Jeremy --

Yeah, I saw that WNDU was not going to air the episode: a bar appeared across the bottom of the screen during a promo that was shown during the Sunday Night Football Game indicating the episode of "Chuck" being advertised would not be shown in our market.

Which reminded me: WNDU has pulled other shows in the past.

Back in March 2000, WNDU was one of a couple dozen network affiliates nationwide that pulled the premiere of "God, Bob & the Devil." In September 2003, WNDU also pulled the premiere of "Coupling". (I think my dates are right; that's what my memory tells me.)

This time, though, unlike with "Coupling and "God, Bob and the Devil," WNDU did eventually air the "Chuck" episode in question.

Maybe the folks at WNDU learned lessons from the "Coupling" and "God, Bob & the Devil" situations: there was national attention focused on the "Coupling" decision, as WNDU was only one of two NBC affiliates to pull the premiere, the other in Salt Lake City.

And "God, Bob and the Devil"? To this day Jeremy, I don't know if it was meant to be ironic, or someone in programming at WNDU at the time didn't agree with management's decision to pull "God, Bob and the Devil," but a "Seinfeld" epsisode was aired in its place: "The Contest" (fourth season, episode 11), an entire episode devoted to masturbation and a group wager over who could "last the longest" without...caving in.

Priceless.

Posted by Jeremy Bonfiglio at 11:38 am on Tuesday, December 04
Thanks for the comments everyone ...

John, I agree this wasn't the best choice in the world, but hopefully WNDU and other stations care what we want to watch. Maybe WNDU will realize that this choice may not have reflected the viewership as much as they think it did. That's my hope anyway.

Thanks for writing in Joe. To answer your question: WNDU continued to run "Chuck" promos all week, so a lot of people weren't aware that they needed to set their DVRs/VCRs for 3am in the first place and missed the episode. That's why we wanted to get the word out. As far as my being able to afford a "nice" DVR. I can assure you it's not so nice. It comes from my cable provider and costs about $10 a month to rent or about the cost of two movie rentals or going to see one in the theater. But thanks for the "Big Bucks" comment, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

Hi Matt,
I saw the same scroll during the Sunday Night Game, which sparked the story and blog. I did not see it earlier in the week, however, when "Chuck" was being hyped to death, which made me wonder ...
You bring up a lot of good history here. Both "Coupling and "God, Bob and the Devil" were pulled because of content those at WNDU found offensive. That wasn't the case with "Chuck."
As far as the Seinfeld" epsisode that aired in place of "God, Bob and the Devil" (which a colleague and I just talked about), I can only assume someone at WNDU has a great sense of humor ...