No Hoper Repeat: Difference between revisions

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* On [[Super Bowl]] Sunday, the cable channel [[Animal Planet]] schedules a program called the "[[Puppy Bowl]]" ~~-- basically~~, extended footage of puppies playing in an enclosure resembling a football stadium, along with "play-by-play" commentary (for many years provided by an actual football announcer, Harry Kalas). From the second Puppy Bowl onwards, they had a kitten halftime show.

* On [[Super Bowl]] Sunday, the cable channel [[Animal Planet]] schedules a program called the "[[Puppy Bowl]]"—basically, extended footage of puppies playing in an enclosure resembling a football stadium, along with "play-by-play" commentary (for many years provided by an actual football announcer, Harry Kalas). From the second Puppy Bowl onwards, they had a kitten halftime show.

* The other American networks used to attempt to compete with the Super Bowl, but now that they broadcast the NFL in some way or another, they don't even try. Fox sacrificed new episodes of ''[[Til Death]]'' on Super Bowl night 2010 for instance, knowing that nobody would miss a show which was only airing because the producers wanted to get it into syndication.

* When the famous ''[[Dallas]]'' "Who Shot J.R.?" episode was first broadcast, NBC officials joked that opposite it they would run only a card reading, "We're watching it too."

* During the [[Grand Finale]] episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'', [[MTV]] interrupted programming whenever [[NBC]] went to commercial, and showed a clip from the then upcoming [[Animated Anthology]] ''Cartoon Sushi''. The host claimed they were timing their broadcast by looking out the window of the studio, and watching the giant TV in Times Square.

** During that episode, [[TV Land]] ran a card encouraging its viewers to turn to ''Seinfeld''. The same was done for ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]''.

** In Australia, ''Seinfeld'' was run on two ~~channels--one~~ new episodes, one ~~reruns--at~~ about the same time. When the finale was shown here, the other channel showed only a black screen.

** In Australia, ''Seinfeld'' was run on two channels—one new episodes, one reruns—at about the same time. When the finale was shown here, the other channel showed only a black screen.

* In many local markets it was assumed that either ''[[The Oprah Winfrey Show|Oprah]]'' or ''[[Judge Judy]]'' will win the 4pm timeslot, so the other stations either showed local news, sitcoms, or a talk show they know won't win but will hopefully keep their viewer momentum going.

* The US version of ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' [[Tropes Are Not Bad|actually benefited from low expectations]]. [[ABC]] aired it Thursdays at 8:00 (7:00 Central), opposite ''[[Friends]]'' on NBC and ''[[Survivor]]'' on CBS. ABC knew ''Whose Line'' was cheap to produce and had a dedicated fanbase, and ''Whose Line'' survived much longer than if it had been expected to attract high [[Ratings]].

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* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' series 4 finale "[[Doctor Who/Recap/NS/S4/E13 Journeys End|Journey's End]]" was hyped weeks before it was aired, with the level growing exponentially. The finale was expected to be watched by ten million people, so [[The BBC]]'s rival [[ITV]] showed ''[[Kindergarten Cop]]'' against it.

** ITV did actually put some effort into competing against ''Doctor Who'' in the show's first relaunched season in 2005. ''Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'' aired against the first four episodes of the revival, and while it didn't beat ''Doctor Who'', it still performed pretty well in the ratings, all things considered. ITV's next effort, ''Celebrity Wrestling'' got utterly ripped to shreds in the ratings though, and became a national joke within days. ITV subsequently realised that shows like ''Saturday Night Takeaway'' were best saved for when the BBC themselves were broadcasting No Hoper Repeats, and since then have mostly aired old films and clip shows against ''Doctor Who''.

** Ironically, Doctor Who was ''itself'' an example of this trope when it was broadcast against ITV's ''[[Coronation Street]]'' from ~~1987--1989~~.

** Ironically, Doctor Who was ''itself'' an example of this trope when it was broadcast against ITV's ''[[Coronation Street]]'' from 1987–1989.

* During the 2008 Olympics, Fox8 (an Australian cable TV channel) aired almost non-stop ''[[Simpsons]], [[Family Guy]], [[King of the Hill]], [[Futurama]]'' and ''[[American Dad]]'' episodes. It almost worked, until they ran out of ''[[American Dad]]'' episodes so they had repeats of the [[No Hoper Repeat]] during the extended [[No Hoper Repeat]].

* During the 2008 Olympics, Fox8 (an Australian cable TV channel) aired almost non-stop ''[[Simpsons]], [[Family Guy]], [[King of the Hill]], [[Futurama]]'' and ''[[American Dad]]'' episodes. It almost worked, until they ran out of ''[[American Dad]]'' episodes so they had repeats of the '''No Hoper Repeat''' during the extended '''No Hoper Repeat'''.

** And Animal Planet created an Olympic-themed variant of the Puppy Bowl just for the Olympics (the Puppy Games) to run opposite the opening and closing ceremonies.

** During the 2004 (or perhaps 2000?) Olympics, they just showed ''[[Simpsons]]'' episodes during the day. That's right, at least ''six hours'' of ''Simpsons'' episodes a ''day''.

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** Subverted by ''[[The Funday Pawpet Show]]'', which usually runs on Sunday nights. The cast of the interactive show quickly gathered together that Tuesday night and did a live broadcast discussing the incident and calming people down. Both out of respect and the fact that it wasn't a 'show' perse, it was not recorded by the creators, the only known recording being a viewer made one.

* Parodied on ''[[Late Night|LateNight With Conan O'Brien]]'' which, playing opposite the Olympics on [[CBS]], ran a segment called "Nobody's Watching", which featured antics such as Conan and Andy smoking cigarettes, Conan revealing that he wore a Hanson t-shirt under his shirt and tie, and Al Roker stopping by to confess that he hated being a weatherman.

* Played with during the fifteenth series of ''[[Top Gear]]''. The trio knew that one of their episodes was going to go out against [[The World Cup]] Final on both BBC and ITV, so they figured "no-one's going to be watching" so they put less effort into the ~~episode -- not~~ even showing a proper Power Lap -- ''but'' contains Star-in-a-Reasonably-Priced-Car records been broken ''twice'': Rubens Barrichello on the F1 leaderboard, and [[Harry Potter (film)|Rupert Grint]] in the Cee'd (and breaking the Liana and Lacetti records before it).

* Played with during the fifteenth series of ''[[Top Gear]]''. The trio knew that one of their episodes was going to go out against [[The World Cup]] Final on both BBC and ITV, so they figured "no-one's going to be watching" so they put less effort into the episode—not even showing a proper Power Lap -- ''but'' contains Star-in-a-Reasonably-Priced-Car records been broken ''twice'': Rubens Barrichello on the F1 leaderboard, and [[Harry Potter (film)|Rupert Grint]] in the Cee'd (and breaking the Liana and Lacetti records before it).

** The following week, Jeremy Clarkson admitted even he didn't watch it, as he was in Johannesburg at the final at the time.

* In Australia, immediately after an election is called, the leaders of the major parties are obliged to take part in a televised debate. Unfortunately, due to bad planning, the 2010 debate ran on the same night as the finale of ''MasterChef'', [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|the most watched programme in Australian TV history]]. Eventually, everyone decided to hold the debate before the MasterChef finale so people could watch both.<ref>Not that anyone watched the debate anyway, but it's the thought that counts.</ref>

** This was attempted in reverse by the George HW Bush campaign during the 1988 US presidential election. Fearing a poor debate performance against Michael Dukakis, the Bush campaign agreed to two televised ~~debates--one~~ to be scheduled against the Olympics and the other against baseball's National League Championship Series. However, the broadcast networks quickly accommodated the debates. NBC suspended their Olympic programming for an hour and a half, while ABC scheduled a late start for the baseball game, which was being played at Dodger Stadium on the West Coast.

** This was attempted in reverse by the George HW Bush campaign during the 1988 US presidential election. Fearing a poor debate performance against Michael Dukakis, the Bush campaign agreed to two televised debates—one to be scheduled against the Olympics and the other against baseball's National League Championship Series. However, the broadcast networks quickly accommodated the debates. NBC suspended their Olympic programming for an hour and a half, while ABC scheduled a late start for the baseball game, which was being played at Dodger Stadium on the West Coast.

** Similarly, when it became apparent that [[Barack Obama]]'s first State of the Union address would conflict with ''[[Lost]]'''s sixth season premiere, ''the president'' rescheduled. He did so again in September 2011 to first calm the GOP when he wanted to schedule a speech to Congress the night of their latest presidential debate, and then again to an earlier time the next day to get out of the way of the Saints/Packers season kickoff game.

*** Needless to say in Wisconsin and Louisiana? You didn't see that speech on NBC at all.