I think the dumber decision was the Bears doing an onsides kick after going up by 10. Definitely a head scratcher. Hearing Dick Enberg's voice takes me back to my childhood!
I grew up in southeast Michigan in the 70s and 80s. WDIV pre-empted NBC programming on a pretty regular basis. Since WDIV was the flagship local station for Tigers baseball from the mid 70s up until 1994, a lot of these pre-emptions involved WDIV showing Tigers games. Many of us in the Detroit media market knew to consider the Lansing (Channel 10) and Toledo (Channel 13) NBC affiliates if WDIV was pre-empting NBC network programming.
@Tommy Keeran 13 and 24 switched sometime in the 1990s. I remember relying on 13 often because WDIV was pre-empting something, and not only just because of baseball. My favorite show in the late 70s/early 80s was Diff'rent Strokes, and around the 1982-83 season, NBC moved it to Saturday at 8 pm. However, for some reason, WDIV would air Entertainment This Week from 7:30 to 8:30 on Saturday, meaning that to see Diff'rent Strokes on Channel 13, I had to use our small, black and white, not hooked to cable television set. Early on, we used to get the Toledo and Lansing stations along with the Detroit stations on our cable system, but eventually (very early 1980s), the cable system dropped Toledo and Lansing.
This is very similar to what happened 12 years later with TBS & NASCAR. TBS's original plan was to show the Pennsylvania 500 from Pocono followed by evening coverage of the Goodwill Games (which was Ted Turner's failed attempt to create an Olympic style competition) from NYC. For most of the country this happened according to plan. However in LA & the Bay Area, TBS decided to cut away from the race with 10 laps to go without telling the viewers so that they could begin Goodwill Games coverage early. This was because executives at Turner wanted the highest possible ratings for the Goodwill Games in two of the biggest cities & TV markets in the country. However when coverage of the Goodwill Games started in both the Bay Area & LA, they showed pre-recorded events that had taken place earlier in the day instead of live competition while the rest of country got live competition. Heck TBS showed events that CBS (who also aired the Goodwill Games that year) had already shown live. NASCAR fans in those areas were absolutely livid with TBS for doing this even though the race was being absolutely dominated by Jeff Gordon but they wanted to see if Gordon could win the race to regain his championship points lead. For some context, Gordon is from California & was massively popular at the time. Speaking of the Goodwill Games, a week after this took place, TBS caused more controversy when they started coverage of a Braves game 2 outs into the 1st inning so that they could show the conclusion of the decathlon at the Goodwill Games.
FS1 did the same thing to a Truck Series race at Martinsville for a Iowa State football game a couple years ago with less than ten laps left around a short track
This is a bizarre coincidence on my end. I knew you were talking about WDIV in Detroit because I watched an NBC (baseball) Game of the Week from 1988 only a few days ago, and they splashed their logo up coming out of a break. ETA and the game was only posted last week.
Here in New York City, WNBC-TV (channel 4) did not aired the Bears/Browns game. So instead, they aired the Jets/Bills game in the first week of the NFL season. Other non-network affiliates like WPIX-TV (channel 11) carried the Yankees/Angels game and WOR-TV (channel 9) carried the Mets/Padres game. No cutaways to another game, no screwups, nothing.
@@Musicradio77Network That would be correct. NFL broadcast rules required WNBC-TV to air Jets-Bills (that was the season the Jets would start 10-1, lose five straight but be the first team to do that and still make the playoffs, win the Wild Card game against the Chiefs and lose "The Marathon By The Lake" in double overtime against the Browns in the game that likely caused "The Drive" for John Elway to happen a week later for the Broncos against the Browns as the Browns by that point were feeling the effects of the double OT game a week earlier). KYW-TV (Channel 3, then the NBC affiliate) in Philadelphia did air this game directly opposite Eagles-Redskins on WCAU-TV (Channel 10, then CBS owned-and-operated) that was Buddy Ryan's debut as Eagles HC (KYW and WCAU would swap affiliates after Westinghouse, which owned KYW through their Group W subsidiary merged with CBS and NBC buying WCAU from them where that became NBC 10 as the NBC O & O and KYW the CBS O & O, that change officially happening on September 10, 1995). EDIT: I believe Eagles-Redskins also aired on WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York because the Giants opened on Monday night in Dallas against the Cowboys.
Reminds me of a few months ago when Alabama and LSU played. I went to grab a case of beer. The cashier was watching the game and was like yeah this game is over with like 4 mins left. I laughed and was like 4 is an eternity in football time. She just said Alabama is gonna win this. Went on with the transaction and left. Completely forgot about the game and went home and drank some and relaxed. Next morning i saw LSU won and just said to myself told you
"4 is an eternity in football time", he said. "Alabama is gonna win",she replied. Yada Yada Yada After seeing LSU had indeed come back to win,he sat there and to himself quipped,"told ya, lady"
(That Guy Alert) Making this worse, CBS didn’t have a game to air at 4 ET thanks to the US Open Tennis Championship. So between the NBC and CBS affiliates they didn’t show an NFL game in Detroit at 4. I would have liked to have heard if WDIV sold the NFL game to another local station. I suspect that station would have picked up the late game from the beginning instead of showing the end of the Browns-Bears game.
Wow I saw this game because the Jets were on the road and the giants played Monday night. Back then under these circumstances nyc got the doubleheader game and NBC had the doubleheader that week. It shows how much clout baseball had in those days such as later than year with the giants and Mets playing in late October
He mentioned in his previous video on the New York Giants and game 7 of the 1986 World Series where the New York Mets was played against the Boston Red Sox in a final do-or-die showdown. ua-cam.com/video/DN0bFRy-29Y/v-deo.html
@@Musicradio77Network Which I remember the Maras and the NFL were angry about. It had rained that Sunday (when Game 7 was to take place), though that rain had stopped by the time that game was postponed and there were many who felt then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle should have made clear to MLB they had to play Game 7 that night even if the field was in sub-par shape or play Game 7 Monday afternoon at 4:00 PM ET or on Tuesday night, making it clear airing it opposite Monday Night Football would have been a violation of NBC's contract with the NFL. That was the lowest-rated Monday Night Game ever had to that point and many felt the NFL should have "bullied" MLB into playing that Sunday night no matter what or make them wait until Tuesday to play that Game 7 unless they played Monday afternoon before MNF even if it caused massive complaints from people in the west seeing their daytime soaps being pre-empted and those who would have been at work and school when that Game 7 took place.
Wow after watching this video for 5 minutes I actually remember this and lol I remember my dad got so mad cuz even though we lived in the Detroit area he was a diehard Browns fan.
WDIV is reviving the "Go 4 It" slogan. The station had a contract with the Tigers, which included a pregame show. But Channel 4 could've joined the pregame in progress, or could've preempted it.
2007 I was watching the Chargers playing the Chiefs on CBS and San Diego were up big at the start of the 4th so I left to buy something at Burger King and 20 minutes later I came back KC came back and took the lead and beat the Chargers YOU RULE
Henry Maldonado must not have watched much football. A 2-possession game with 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter isn't a wrap by any means. Considering that this was only a pregame show that he was preempting the end of this NFL thriller for, he wasn't good at his job. The Tigers being good but way behind the Red Sox (no realistic playoff shot due to the format at the time) and the Athletics being way worse and being nowhere near the then-California Angels in the standings make the optics look even worse.
It might have been he was told he had to cut to it or the Tigers would have sued the station for breach of contract (and elected officials in areas where baseball was more important than football might have chimed in as well as they often had much greater say back then over such broadcasting decisions). MLB was still looked at as KING at the time and the NFL was not yet the 800-pound gorilla of sports it would be within a decade.
@@WaltGekko Knowing good and well it was an NBC affiliate, WDIV-TV should've planned for contingencies in its contract with the Tigers for Sundays during the NFL season. That's still the station's fault IMO. Remember that the Tigers/Athletics game had no impact in the playoff race.
@@marcus813 Yes, but back then baseball was still looked at as more important. The Tigers likely enforced their deal with WDIV-TV and would not allow their game to be moved to another station.
BBC One Wales didn't show a try scored on New Year's Day in 2024 during "Scrum V" changing the score from 22-21 to 27-21; that was because they were suffering from technical weather issues. The rain was hitting very hard at the venue. However, moments after it came back, at around 17 minutes to 5pm, BBC One Wales had so much picture issues that they had to abandon the remainder of the telecast. At least, no other team scored during the 17 minutes of BBC One Wales replacement programs.
i was such a huge bears as a 7yo boy it was abnormal... i knew the 1984 chicago bears starting lineup by name anf number at 5yo and i wouldn't miss wwf at 11am and bears at noon but this day i missed most of the game but i cant remember why! it still eats at me im not normal i really shoullda been a scout or recruiter! instead i run an assembly line at CAT
The game on CBS resulted in a 3 point victory for the Lions over the Vikings. Had the Vikings won that game they would have been the second wild card team in 1986. The 86 Vikings may have been one of the best teams to not make the playoffs. In a 5 week stretch from late October to late November they went 1-4. They lost by 3 to the Browns (the 1 seed in the AFC and runner up for the AFC title), lost by six in OT to the Redskins (the eventual runner up for NFC title), lost by 2 the Giants (the 1 seed in the NFC, NFC and Super Bowl champs) and lost by 4 to the Bengals (also one of the best teams to miss the playoffs as they lost it on a tiebreaker to the Jets and Chiefs).
I'll lay you 50-1 odds that even if this game had been tied and been truly anybody's game, Maldonado would have still acted like even a tie wasn't close enough and still cut away to the Tigers (he was probably bound and determined to show the Tigers just because that NBC station was in Detroit [as was said, the Tigers were flat out of the race at the time that 1986 Browns/Bears broadcast started that NFL season on NBC, so, as was also said here, why make people see meaningless baseball over evidently exciting NFL football?]).
Obviously the program director was still in baseball mode where a 10 run lead is pretty safe (unless the Cubs have it, then we will find a way to blow it)
I got an interesting question. This was week 1 of the 1986 season. Did NBC have the doubleheader because if they did the PD is an even bigger idiot because even if they were contractually obligated to show the Tigers game that meant you dumped the 2nd half of the doubleheader. The big boys at the network should have gotten involved there.
I believe it was a contractual situation. This was in the days where weekend games were shown over-the-air and not on cable to keep those without cable happy (and elected officials who had greater say back then on such matters).
@@WaltGekko Totally get that and understand that but even in those years not all the games were on broadcast TV and with it being week 1 of the NFL season you would think they would be smarter in scheduling knowing NBC had the doubleheader. I won't even get into the fact that even with the game being broadcast that showing the pregame show was borderline idiotic contract obligations or not.
@@mikebutz2611This was why another NBC affiliate in New York City known as WNBC-TV did aired the New York Jets Vs. Buffalo Bills instead of airing the Chicago Bears Vs. Cleveland Browns due to this game being blacked out on NYC TV.
9:47 that programming director just needs to say anything, anything! Even if he looks like he wants to get punched. But you do have to acknowledge that local revenue dollars were contingent on the Tigers pregame show being shown (possibly but not likely Tigers revenue too*). Also, This was back in an era where major league sports teams in the US wanted to get their local broadcasts off of VHF TV stations (which are usually network affiliates) and on to UHF as well as possibly cable and *with these such moves, the sports teams wanted to own the broadcasts and no longer the TV station would own them.
When I saw the final score the first thing that popped into my mind was, "That Bears D doesn't look so great THIS season." And of course they proceeded to allow even FEWER points.
Wasn't this the same affiliate in 1982 to not show a game in the final week? All because they failed to realized they didn't have the green light to air the 4pm game and tried to plead with CBS to make an exception and told them to piss off?
This was the same NBC affiliate in this case. Someone at WDIV-TV didn't know how the NFL's TV rules worked. Channel 4 was supposed to air Steelers/Browns in the 1 p.m. EDT window, but didn't. I don't know how the station thought the Packers/Lions showdown would be sold out in time for then-CBS affiliate WJBK to air it.
@Kyle Caughlin, you appear to be confusing the network broadcast with the actions taken by an affiliate station. The focus on this topic is the actions taken by WDIV-TV, not the NBC Television Network.
@brucelipsitz7545 that's who I was talking about. WDIV was the same network that failed to show a game in the final week of 1982 because they didn't know the rules.
And this time, it's because JG9 didn't do research into channel 4 or even basic baseball TV deals at the time. Saying that WDIV had "no contractual obligation" trusts that we can't look up the history of each MLB team's local media rights on Wikipedia or the interned archive. This was highly common practice at the time. In fact, unless the Steelers were on CBS, the only way the Pirates were to be interrupted on KDKA would be for a world event from CBS News proper. You know why? Because KDKA had a direct TV deal with the Pirates until the late 1980s. DIV had the same deal with the Tigers until the strike in 1994 where unless the Lions were on NBC, the Tigers take precedence.
You're not wrong that it was a dumb decision, but assuming a Tigers game isn't going to get high ratings in Detroit is a stretch. If they're even slightly good they get some of the best ratings in all of baseball. 2 years out of a championship and 1 year before a division title, guarantee they had a ton of interested viewers. That said the right call was still showing the football game and hoping it's over by the time first pitch happens. Showing the pre game show was pointless.
So. Bears (who the Lions loathe) vs. Browns (who most Detroiters loathe simply because of OHIO) gets preempted for a pre-existing TV deal with the Tigers? This is like going off on KDKA if they preempted the Larry Mize Masters for a Pirates game. WDIV's owners had a long-term relationship with the Tigers at the time. Sensible in the world of not getting sued for breach of contract.
JG9 got worked into a shoot. Did the NBC affiliate have broadcasting rights to the Tigers that season? JG9 not addressing this feels like him bitching for the sake of bitching.
You could have done a better job of emphasizing to viewers of this video that unlike the "Heidi game" which WAS an NBC decision to cut away from the game, this was a decison by an NBC AFFILIATE to cut away, i.e. affiliates in Toledo, Cleveland, New York, etc. carried the game to its conclusion. And thus, the title is misleading. An accurate title would be "The Stupidest Broadcasting Decision by an NBC Affiliate in NFL History."
But WNBC-TV (channel 4) in NYC did aired the Jets-Bills game and not to show the Bears-Browns game for no reason. I guess New Yorkers never cared for the Chicago Bears or the Cleveland Browns, but just for the New York Jets fans.
@@briandonegan8480 You would think that NBC, affiliate or othrwise would have learned, being part of the conglomerate that made the mistake not once, but twice; famously on the national level and later, the affiliate level, before 1986. So the title really doesn't imply, it infers and does so with precedent.
@@briandonegan8480WNBC-TV (channel 4) in NYC did not showed this game, but they ran the New York Jets game played against the Buffalo Bills. No cutaways to another game, never.
@@Musicradio77Network As noted that was NFL broadcasting rules that prevented WNBC-TV from airing that Browns-Bears game. WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York and WCAU-TV (Channel 10, then the CBS owned-and-operated station) in Philadelphia both aired Eagles-Redskins, which was Buddy Ryan's debut as Eagles head coach. KYW-TV (Channel 3, then an NBC affiliate) in Philadelphia did air Browns-Bears. (KYW-TV became a CBS O & O and WCAU-TV became an NBC O & O at 1:00 AM on September 10, 1995 to complete a merger between CBS and Westinghouse, whose subsidary Group W was KYW's parent to that point with WCAU sold to NBC).
I think the biggest "I'm sorry, what?" here is that onside kick attempt.
I think the dumber decision was the Bears doing an onsides kick after going up by 10. Definitely a head scratcher. Hearing Dick Enberg's voice takes me back to my childhood!
'get the fk out of here before i chop your head off you %$#%#'. leo getz things done.
RIP Sweetness.
I grew up in southeast Michigan in the 70s and 80s. WDIV pre-empted NBC programming on a pretty regular basis. Since WDIV was the flagship local station for Tigers baseball from the mid 70s up until 1994, a lot of these pre-emptions involved WDIV showing Tigers games. Many of us in the Detroit media market knew to consider the Lansing (Channel 10) and Toledo (Channel 13) NBC affiliates if WDIV was pre-empting NBC network programming.
Is George Blaha still by you guys?
13 used to be NBC? I learned something knew today! It's ABC now and Toledo NBC (24) doesn't even have the news anymore.
@Tommy Keeran 13 and 24 switched sometime in the 1990s. I remember relying on 13 often because WDIV was pre-empting something, and not only just because of baseball. My favorite show in the late 70s/early 80s was Diff'rent Strokes, and around the 1982-83 season, NBC moved it to Saturday at 8 pm. However, for some reason, WDIV would air Entertainment This Week from 7:30 to 8:30 on Saturday, meaning that to see Diff'rent Strokes on Channel 13, I had to use our small, black and white, not hooked to cable television set. Early on, we used to get the Toledo and Lansing stations along with the Detroit stations on our cable system, but eventually (very early 1980s), the cable system dropped Toledo and Lansing.
I love to see you colbert with KTO or do dumb decision with urinatingtree
JG9 is the family friendly, less cynical/hateful version of Tree.
Nah. Go bigger. Brett Kollman, KTO, all of Clickbait, JG9-8, and others should do a complete takeover of ESPN or some existing cable network.
@@johnstebbins24 I would have to imagine Tree and Perna would have to carry TV MA ratings.
This is very similar to what happened 12 years later with TBS & NASCAR. TBS's original plan was to show the Pennsylvania 500 from Pocono followed by evening coverage of the Goodwill Games (which was Ted Turner's failed attempt to create an Olympic style competition) from NYC. For most of the country this happened according to plan. However in LA & the Bay Area, TBS decided to cut away from the race with 10 laps to go without telling the viewers so that they could begin Goodwill Games coverage early. This was because executives at Turner wanted the highest possible ratings for the Goodwill Games in two of the biggest cities & TV markets in the country. However when coverage of the Goodwill Games started in both the Bay Area & LA, they showed pre-recorded events that had taken place earlier in the day instead of live competition while the rest of country got live competition. Heck TBS showed events that CBS (who also aired the Goodwill Games that year) had already shown live. NASCAR fans in those areas were absolutely livid with TBS for doing this even though the race was being absolutely dominated by Jeff Gordon but they wanted to see if Gordon could win the race to regain his championship points lead. For some context, Gordon is from California & was massively popular at the time. Speaking of the Goodwill Games, a week after this took place, TBS caused more controversy when they started coverage of a Braves game 2 outs into the 1st inning so that they could show the conclusion of the decathlon at the Goodwill Games.
FS1 did the same thing to a Truck Series race at Martinsville for a Iowa State football game a couple years ago with less than ten laps left around a short track
This is a bizarre coincidence on my end. I knew you were talking about WDIV in Detroit because I watched an NBC (baseball) Game of the Week from 1988 only a few days ago, and they splashed their logo up coming out of a break. ETA and the game was only posted last week.
Here in New York City, WNBC-TV (channel 4) did not aired the Bears/Browns game. So instead, they aired the Jets/Bills game in the first week of the NFL season. Other non-network affiliates like WPIX-TV (channel 11) carried the Yankees/Angels game and WOR-TV (channel 9) carried the Mets/Padres game. No cutaways to another game, no screwups, nothing.
@@Musicradio77Network That would be correct. NFL broadcast rules required WNBC-TV to air Jets-Bills (that was the season the Jets would start 10-1, lose five straight but be the first team to do that and still make the playoffs, win the Wild Card game against the Chiefs and lose "The Marathon By The Lake" in double overtime against the Browns in the game that likely caused "The Drive" for John Elway to happen a week later for the Broncos against the Browns as the Browns by that point were feeling the effects of the double OT game a week earlier). KYW-TV (Channel 3, then the NBC affiliate) in Philadelphia did air this game directly opposite Eagles-Redskins on WCAU-TV (Channel 10, then CBS owned-and-operated) that was Buddy Ryan's debut as Eagles HC (KYW and WCAU would swap affiliates after Westinghouse, which owned KYW through their Group W subsidiary merged with CBS and NBC buying WCAU from them where that became NBC 10 as the NBC O & O and KYW the CBS O & O, that change officially happening on September 10, 1995).
EDIT: I believe Eagles-Redskins also aired on WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York because the Giants opened on Monday night in Dallas against the Cowboys.
@@WaltGekko The Giants/Cowboys game was on WABC-TV as part of “Monday Night Football”.
And still showing ernest byner fumbling the ball and having to recover it near the goal line...
Good thing that never happened again.
I think Mr. Maldonado must have thought that both teams with 8 minutes left to go just spiked the ball on every single play.
I'm sorry, WHAT? lol
became the Maine event
Reminds me of a few months ago when Alabama and LSU played. I went to grab a case of beer. The cashier was watching the game and was like yeah this game is over with like 4 mins left. I laughed and was like 4 is an eternity in football time. She just said Alabama is gonna win this. Went on with the transaction and left. Completely forgot about the game and went home and drank some and relaxed. Next morning i saw LSU won and just said to myself told you
"4 is an eternity in football time", he said.
"Alabama is gonna win",she replied.
Yada Yada Yada
After seeing LSU had indeed come back to win,he sat there and to himself quipped,"told ya, lady"
I was waiting for you to say, “Talk about a dumb decision.”
(That Guy Alert) Making this worse, CBS didn’t have a game to air at 4 ET thanks to the US Open Tennis Championship. So between the NBC and CBS affiliates they didn’t show an NFL game in Detroit at 4.
I would have liked to have heard if WDIV sold the NFL game to another local station. I suspect that station would have picked up the late game from the beginning instead of showing the end of the Browns-Bears game.
Wow I saw this game because the Jets were on the road and the giants played Monday night. Back then under these circumstances nyc got the doubleheader game and NBC had the doubleheader that week. It shows how much clout baseball had in those days such as later than year with the giants and Mets playing in late October
He mentioned in his previous video on the New York Giants and game 7 of the 1986 World Series where the New York Mets was played against the Boston Red Sox in a final do-or-die showdown. ua-cam.com/video/DN0bFRy-29Y/v-deo.html
@@Musicradio77Network Which I remember the Maras and the NFL were angry about. It had rained that Sunday (when Game 7 was to take place), though that rain had stopped by the time that game was postponed and there were many who felt then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle should have made clear to MLB they had to play Game 7 that night even if the field was in sub-par shape or play Game 7 Monday afternoon at 4:00 PM ET or on Tuesday night, making it clear airing it opposite Monday Night Football would have been a violation of NBC's contract with the NFL. That was the lowest-rated Monday Night Game ever had to that point and many felt the NFL should have "bullied" MLB into playing that Sunday night no matter what or make them wait until Tuesday to play that Game 7 unless they played Monday afternoon before MNF even if it caused massive complaints from people in the west seeing their daytime soaps being pre-empted and those who would have been at work and school when that Game 7 took place.
Talk about a dumb decision
Wow after watching this video for 5 minutes I actually remember this and lol I remember my dad got so mad cuz even though we lived in the Detroit area he was a diehard Browns fan.
WDIV is reviving the "Go 4 It" slogan.
The station had a contract with the Tigers, which included a pregame show. But Channel 4 could've joined the pregame in progress, or could've preempted it.
I see what he did there at 2:56.
As a postscript, the game WDIV was in a hurry to show its pregame coverage for: The Tigers ended up losing 8-4.
2007 I was watching the Chargers playing the Chiefs on CBS and San Diego were up big at the start of the 4th so I left to buy something at Burger King and 20 minutes later I came back KC came back and took the lead and beat the Chargers
YOU RULE
Henry Maldonado must not have watched much football. A 2-possession game with 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter isn't a wrap by any means. Considering that this was only a pregame show that he was preempting the end of this NFL thriller for, he wasn't good at his job. The Tigers being good but way behind the Red Sox (no realistic playoff shot due to the format at the time) and the Athletics being way worse and being nowhere near the then-California Angels in the standings make the optics look even worse.
It might have been he was told he had to cut to it or the Tigers would have sued the station for breach of contract (and elected officials in areas where baseball was more important than football might have chimed in as well as they often had much greater say back then over such broadcasting decisions). MLB was still looked at as KING at the time and the NFL was not yet the 800-pound gorilla of sports it would be within a decade.
@@WaltGekko Knowing good and well it was an NBC affiliate, WDIV-TV should've planned for contingencies in its contract with the Tigers for Sundays during the NFL season. That's still the station's fault IMO. Remember that the Tigers/Athletics game had no impact in the playoff race.
@@marcus813 Yes, but back then baseball was still looked at as more important. The Tigers likely enforced their deal with WDIV-TV and would not allow their game to be moved to another station.
I suspect people would've been a lot more angry if they'd missed the end of the Bears-Browns game in '01.
But in NYC, they don’t showed them, because of the Jets/Bills game were played on the same day which was started at 1PM on WNBC-TV
BBC One Wales didn't show a try scored on New Year's Day in 2024 during "Scrum V" changing the score from 22-21 to 27-21; that was because they were suffering from technical weather issues. The rain was hitting very hard at the venue. However, moments after it came back, at around 17 minutes to 5pm, BBC One Wales had so much picture issues that they had to abandon the remainder of the telecast. At least, no other team scored during the 17 minutes of BBC One Wales replacement programs.
To funny because WDIV just brought the Go 4 It back lol.
My uncle recorded the WMAQ (Chicago NBC affiliate) broadcast of this game. I have it on VCR tape, but a VCR wrecked the tape, lol.
The first official use of video instant replay was used in this game if I'm not mistaken.
Channel 20 in Detroit had the low rated "New Monkees" in 1987-88 on sundays at 4 pm next to the Lions games...
i was such a huge bears as a 7yo boy it was abnormal... i knew the 1984 chicago bears starting lineup by name anf number at 5yo and i wouldn't miss wwf at 11am and bears at noon but this day i missed most of the game but i cant remember why! it still eats at me im not normal i really shoullda been a scout or recruiter! instead i run an assembly line at CAT
Hyperbolic titles, card clicking corners...
Music sounds like PS3 Bejeweled 3 free play mode.....and I loved it all
The game on CBS resulted in a 3 point victory for the Lions over the Vikings. Had the Vikings won that game they would have been the second wild card team in 1986. The 86 Vikings may have been one of the best teams to not make the playoffs. In a 5 week stretch from late October to late November they went 1-4. They lost by 3 to the Browns (the 1 seed in the AFC and runner up for the AFC title), lost by six in OT to the Redskins (the eventual runner up for NFC title), lost by 2 the Giants (the 1 seed in the NFC, NFC and Super Bowl champs) and lost by 4 to the Bengals (also one of the best teams to miss the playoffs as they lost it on a tiebreaker to the Jets and Chiefs).
I'll lay you 50-1 odds that even if this game had been tied and been truly anybody's game, Maldonado would have still acted like even a tie wasn't close enough and still cut away to the Tigers (he was probably bound and determined to show the Tigers just because that NBC station was in Detroit [as was said, the Tigers were flat out of the race at the time that 1986 Browns/Bears broadcast started that NFL season on NBC, so, as was also said here, why make people see meaningless baseball over evidently exciting NFL football?]).
I just have two words.
Preston Ridlehuber.
Obviously the program director was still in baseball mode where a 10 run lead is pretty safe (unless the Cubs have it, then we will find a way to blow it)
I got an interesting question. This was week 1 of the 1986 season. Did NBC have the doubleheader because if they did the PD is an even bigger idiot because even if they were contractually obligated to show the Tigers game that meant you dumped the 2nd half of the doubleheader. The big boys at the network should have gotten involved there.
I believe it was a contractual situation. This was in the days where weekend games were shown over-the-air and not on cable to keep those without cable happy (and elected officials who had greater say back then on such matters).
@@WaltGekko Totally get that and understand that but even in those years not all the games were on broadcast TV and with it being week 1 of the NFL season you would think they would be smarter in scheduling knowing NBC had the doubleheader. I won't even get into the fact that even with the game being broadcast that showing the pregame show was borderline idiotic contract obligations or not.
@@mikebutz2611This was why another NBC affiliate in New York City known as WNBC-TV did aired the New York Jets Vs. Buffalo Bills instead of airing the Chicago Bears Vs. Cleveland Browns due to this game being blacked out on NYC TV.
@@Musicradio77Network Excuse me the Jets were going to be on in New York regardless. Has nothing to do with the Bears game or Detroit.
9:47 that programming director just needs to say anything, anything! Even if he looks like he wants to get punched. But you do have to acknowledge that local revenue dollars were contingent on the Tigers pregame show being shown (possibly but not likely Tigers revenue too*). Also, This was back in an era where major league sports teams in the US wanted to get their local broadcasts off of VHF TV stations (which are usually network affiliates) and on to UHF as well as possibly cable and *with these such moves, the sports teams wanted to own the broadcasts and no longer the TV station would own them.
I heard this specific game was a shootout, is that true?
Yes
When I saw the final score the first thing that popped into my mind was, "That Bears D doesn't look so great THIS season." And of course they proceeded to allow even FEWER points.
Wasn't this the same affiliate in 1982 to not show a game in the final week? All because they failed to realized they didn't have the green light to air the 4pm game and tried to plead with CBS to make an exception and told them to piss off?
This was the same NBC affiliate in this case. Someone at WDIV-TV didn't know how the NFL's TV rules worked. Channel 4 was supposed to air Steelers/Browns in the 1 p.m. EDT window, but didn't. I don't know how the station thought the Packers/Lions showdown would be sold out in time for then-CBS affiliate WJBK to air it.
Surprised he didn't reference that in the video.
@Kyle Caughlin, you appear to be confusing the network broadcast with the actions taken by an affiliate station.
The focus on this topic is the actions taken by WDIV-TV, not the NBC Television Network.
@brucelipsitz7545 that's who I was talking about. WDIV was the same network that failed to show a game in the final week of 1982 because they didn't know the rules.
@@KyleCaughlin WDIV-TV is a station, not a network. It's affiliated with a network. Say what you mean off rip so it won't be misinterpreted.
Henry Maldonado would've done better by just spiking the ball into the ground on every decision.
The real cleveland browns 1985 = 1995
Why no more JaguarGator8?
It’s coming soon! Been moving apartments which has put some things on the back burner
@@OfficialJaguarGator9looking forward to it
Tiger’s Ace
WDIV was at the center of another video JG9 did.
And this time, it's because JG9 didn't do research into channel 4 or even basic baseball TV deals at the time. Saying that WDIV had "no contractual obligation" trusts that we can't look up the history of each MLB team's local media rights on Wikipedia or the interned archive. This was highly common practice at the time. In fact, unless the Steelers were on CBS, the only way the Pirates were to be interrupted on KDKA would be for a world event from CBS News proper. You know why? Because KDKA had a direct TV deal with the Pirates until the late 1980s. DIV had the same deal with the Tigers until the strike in 1994 where unless the Lions were on NBC, the Tigers take precedence.
Program director Henry Maldonado probably recreationally used cocaine; should have been a drug test.
It was the '80s so yeah, about half of American adults were recreationally using cocaine back then.
Or more than likely was told by the Tigers they had to air the pregame or they would be sued.
Why would Detroit fans care about the Browns?
In 1988, NBC chose to air the Cosby Show instead of doing a pre-game show prior to Game 5 of the World Series, which ended that night
JG9 stated that Detroit viewers' interest in this game was on division rival Bears.
@@ricknibert6417 Cosby was the #1 show and NBC also needed it to air in prime time after the game on the west coast.
You're not wrong that it was a dumb decision, but assuming a Tigers game isn't going to get high ratings in Detroit is a stretch. If they're even slightly good they get some of the best ratings in all of baseball. 2 years out of a championship and 1 year before a division title, guarantee they had a ton of interested viewers.
That said the right call was still showing the football game and hoping it's over by the time first pitch happens. Showing the pre game show was pointless.
So. Bears (who the Lions loathe) vs. Browns (who most Detroiters loathe simply because of OHIO) gets preempted for a pre-existing TV deal with the Tigers? This is like going off on KDKA if they preempted the Larry Mize Masters for a Pirates game. WDIV's owners had a long-term relationship with the Tigers at the time. Sensible in the world of not getting sued for breach of contract.
JG9 got worked into a shoot. Did the NBC affiliate have broadcasting rights to the Tigers that season? JG9 not addressing this feels like him bitching for the sake of bitching.
You could have done a better job of emphasizing to viewers of this video that unlike the "Heidi game" which WAS an NBC decision to cut away from the game, this was a decison by an NBC AFFILIATE to cut away, i.e. affiliates in Toledo, Cleveland, New York, etc. carried the game to its conclusion.
And thus, the title is misleading. An accurate title would be "The Stupidest Broadcasting Decision by an NBC Affiliate in NFL History."
But WNBC-TV (channel 4) in NYC did aired the Jets-Bills game and not to show the Bears-Browns game for no reason. I guess New Yorkers never cared for the Chicago Bears or the Cleveland Browns, but just for the New York Jets fans.
Blaming an affiliate decision on the Network is ludicrous which is what the title implies.
"...NBC and its affiliates...."
@@Backpackfiles but NBC didn't make the decision. The image also implies that nobody in the country saw the end of the game which isn't true either
@@briandonegan8480 You would think that NBC, affiliate or othrwise would have learned, being part of the conglomerate that made the mistake not once, but twice; famously on the national level and later, the affiliate level, before 1986. So the title really doesn't imply, it infers and does so with precedent.
@@briandonegan8480WNBC-TV (channel 4) in NYC did not showed this game, but they ran the New York Jets game played against the Buffalo Bills. No cutaways to another game, never.
@@Musicradio77Network As noted that was NFL broadcasting rules that prevented WNBC-TV from airing that Browns-Bears game. WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York and WCAU-TV (Channel 10, then the CBS owned-and-operated station) in Philadelphia both aired Eagles-Redskins, which was Buddy Ryan's debut as Eagles head coach. KYW-TV (Channel 3, then an NBC affiliate) in Philadelphia did air Browns-Bears.
(KYW-TV became a CBS O & O and WCAU-TV became an NBC O & O at 1:00 AM on September 10, 1995 to complete a merger between CBS and Westinghouse, whose subsidary Group W was KYW's parent to that point with WCAU sold to NBC).