WHY!! I am appalled and utterly pissed off. Earlier today i went to ABC.com and was happy to see the Bond picture show on tonight, For Your Eyes Only. So 8 pm arrives, i see the ABC logo at the bottom corner disappear, and the cheesey local credits for the movie of the evening, HOOK!! Sheesh. i put on the ol rabbitt ears and see that the local Los Angeles station IS playing Bond. I hate my local(San Dieigo station) for doing this.

The L.A. station, I assume, is actually owned by ABC (as opposed to being an affiliate) and would have to show it. But I don't see why your local station would substitute Hook for it. Seems pointless and stupid.

KGTV (the San Diego affiliate) does that quite often on Saturdays. I don't think any stations are ever really required to air any primetime stuff, and KGTV does that quite often. Once, I noticed they replaced the ALMA Awards with a fundraiser for Children Hospital. *sigh*

"grumble, grumble, grumble."

Affiliates are not required to air the networks' programs but the handful of stations that are actually owned by their respective networks (these stations are usually in NY, LA, Chicago and occasionally a few other big cities) are required to air the networks' offerings and I don't believe they can time shift them either.

I think this is true. Please correct me (and provide links) if I'm wrong.

I don't disagree. I misspoke (mistyped?) in my last post, for the NBC affiliate in San Diego is owned by NBC, and they always air everything NBC airs.

However, the San Diego affiliate of ABC is owned by McGraw Hill, so it would not apply to them.

i can understand them substituting a movie(oo7) for a local program about the city or a telethon or a religious programming, orsomething, but replacing it with another movie (Hook) makes me wonder why?