History ScrewedByTheNetwork / GameShows

** ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares'' was enjoying the highest ratings for a daytime game show but then NBC president and CEO Silverman wanted it gone, ostensibly because he passed on it while vice president of CBS and hated how big of a hit it became. In its last two years on the air, Silverman enacted his revenge by shuffling its time slot in an effort to confuse viewers. He finally canned it in June 1980 along with ''Series/ChainReaction'' and ''Series/HighRollers'' to make room for a 90-minute talk show hosted by Creator/DavidLetterman... which flopped after four months. The same shuffling ''very'' nearly killed ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' as well, but its cancellation was overturned -- and in doing so, it eventually got popular enough to gain the syndicated version which [[LongRunners remains on air well into]] TheNewTwenties. As for Silverman, his bosses at NBC corporate parent RCA ultimately got fed up with his mistakes and finally sacked him and replaced him with Grant Tinker... who, coincidentally, had previously known Creator/MervGriffin back when he previously worked at NBC as a junior programming executive during the mid-1960's, and, in fact, had previously persuaded Mort Werner, then the network's senior vice president of programming and talent, to greenlight Griffin's other best known creation, ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', which itself gained a syndicated revival around the same time as ''Wheel'''s.

* ''Series/MatchGame'' suffered this quite frequently by each of the three networks it aired on over the years (and ''twice'' in ABC's case):

** The Alec Baldwin ABC version was hit with this hard during its final years. The final season was recorded in 2019, but didn't air until '''two years later''', despite much of ABC's schedule being reliant on game shows in the wake of COVID. And then, the show was unceremoniously pulled after only a few weeks, one of which was a repeat of an older episode. Most of that final season ''still'' hasn't aired as of late 2021.

* Challenge as a whole seems to be doing this more and more in 2024. Many longrunners like ''Series/SupermarketSweep'', ''Series/Catchphrase'' and ''Series/FamilyFortunes'' have been placed into very erratic slots which last normally a week or less, while the graveyard slots continue to be filled up with nothing but ''Bullseye'' and ''The Chase'' reruns.

* ''Series/ScrapheapChallenge'' premiered in November 2022, and was given a good weekday timeslot of 3pm before being booted off to the graveyard slot of 4am after 6 weeks. It's 9am Saturday & 5pm Sunday slots stayed the same for another 3 weeks. Currently, it only airs on Sundays at 7am, with three episodes airing at once, and this ended in July 2023.

* The short-lived BBC One show ''The Link'' aired on the channel in 2016 at a 7pm weeknight slot, and never aired again afterwards, being replaced with ''Family Feud'' in its time slot.

** The Alec Baldwin ABC version was hit with this hard during its final years. The final season was recorded in 2019, but didn't air until '''two years later''', despite much of ABC's schedule being reliant on game shows in the wake of COVID. And then, the show was unceremoniously pulled after only a few weeks, one of which was a repeat of an older episode. Most of that final season ''still'' hasn't aired as of late 2021... and after a shooting incident on the set of Baldwin's movie ''Rust'', it likely never will.

* With very rare exception, the syndicated version of ''Wheel of Fortune'' has a mandatory time slot of 7:00 or 7:30 PM in the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones and 6:00 or 6:30 PM in the Central and Mountain Time Zones. Because of this, it is often preempted by local affiliates that choose to air special programming just before primetime.
** It also falls victim to sporting events such as March Madness or the World Series that begin coverage at those times, including Thursday Night Football, which begins pregame at 7:30 PM Eastern and aired interchangeably on CBS and NBC from 2014-18, then FOX from 2018-21.

* ''Series/FamilyGameNight'' was canceled after its fifth season in 2014 due to Hub Network becoming Discovery Family, though its final episode would air after the rebrand that November.

* ''Family Game Night'' was canceled after its fifth season in 2014 due to Hub Network becoming Discovery Family, though its final episode would air after the rebrand that November.

* Quite a few [[Creator/{{GSN}} Game Show Network/GSN]] originals. The typical formula for an original game here: A) introduce it with some fanfare, B) constantly jack its time slot around, C) show a metric buttload of reruns while the show's still making new episodes, D) announce the new seasons rarely if at all, and E) gradually stop making new episodes. Small wonder that, out of all of their original programming dating back to the late 1990s, ''Series/{{Lingo}}'' was one of the only ones to be a bona-fide hit...and even ''that'' was a revival.

* The Australian version of ''[[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase]]'' was first shown at 9 pm, but after a few weeks, it was moved to 2 am, when absolutely nobody was awake. It later received some reruns a few years later before disappearing for good sometime in 2020. It was quite ''[[Main/Irony ironic]]'', considering it was named [[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase.]] In contrast, the original British version is easily their [[Main/AdoredByTheNetwork favourite show]].

* ''Series/ScrapheapChallenge'' was given a good weekday timeslot of 3pm before being booted off to the graveyard slot of 4am after 6 weeks. It's 9am Saturday & 5pm Sunday slots stayed the same for another 3 weeks. Currently, it only airs on Sundays at 7am, with three episodes airing at once, and who knows when that will last. This current scheduling is likely to burn off the remaining episodes that Sky purchased.

* The Australian version of ''[[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase]]'' was first shown at 9 pm, but after a few weeks, it was moved to 2 am, when absolutely nobody was awake. It later received some reruns a few years later before disappearing for good sometime in 2020. It was quite ''[[Main/Irony ironic]], considering it was named [[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase.]] In contrast, the original British version is easily their [[Main/AdoredByTheNetwork favourite show]].

* The Australian version of ''[[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase]]'' was first shown at 9 pm, but after a few weeks, it was moved to 2 am, when absolutely nobody was awake. It later received some reruns a few years later before disappearing for good sometime in 2020. It was quite Main/Irony ironic, considering it was named [[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase.]] In contrast, the original British version is easily their [[Main/AdoredByTheNetwork favourite show]].

Challenge tends to be really bad at this, as they usually classify any show that's not named ''The Chase'' as this, especially after 2015:

* The Australian version of ''[[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase]]'' was first shown at 9pm, but after a few weeks, it was moved to 2am, when absolutely nobody was awake. It later received some reruns a few years later before disappearing for good sometime in 2020. It was quite Main/Irony ironic, considering it was named [[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase.]] In contrast, the original British version is easily their [[Main/AdoredByTheNetwork favourite show]].

* In 2015, ''Countdown'' was quickly moved from its original 7pm slot to 4pm, and was pulled a few weeks later. It briefly came back in an early morning slot a few months later.

* ''Series/ScrapheapChallenge'' was given a good weekday timeslot of 3pm before being booted off to the graveyard slot of 4am after 6 weeks. It's 9am Saturday & 5pm Sunday slots stayed the same for another 3 weeks. Currently, it only airs on Sundays at 7am, and who knows when that will last.
* ''Timeline'' ended up suffering from this as well. The channel gave the show a lot of promotion and advertising. However, Sky placed it in a 9pm slot to rival other shows although the tone of the series didn't really fit its timeslot. Because of this, the series didn't do well in the ratings and after the initial 10-episodes had aired in 2014, the show wasn't renewed for another season, with the show being removed entirely in 2015. Challenge has since not commissioned another original game show.

* ''Series/ScrapheapChallenge'' was given a good weekday timeslot of 3pm before being booted off to the graveyard slot of 4am after 6 weeks. It's 9am Saturday & 5pm Sunday slots stayed the same for another 3 weeks.
* ''Timeline'' ended up suffering from this as well. The channel gave the show a lot of promotion and advertising. However, Sky placed it in a 9pm slot to rival other shows although the tone of the series didn't really fit it's timeslot. Because of this, the series didn't do well in the ratings and after the initial 10-episodes had aired in 2014, the show wasn't renewed for another season, with the show being removed entirely in 2015. Challenge has since not commissioned another original game show.

* The Australian version of ''[[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase]]'' was first shown at 9pm, but after a few weeks, it was moved to 2am, when absolutely nobody was awake. It later received some reruns a few years later before disappearing for good sometime in 2020. It was quite Main/Irony [[ironic]], considering it was named [[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase.]] In contrast, the original British version is easily their [[Main/AdoredByTheNetwork favourite show]].

* Examples from Disney-owned networks, including ABC, Freeform, and A&E Networks, can be seen [[ScrewedByTheNetwork/DisneyNetworks here]]..

* The Australian version of ''[[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase]]'' was first shown at 9pm, but after a few weeks, it was moved to 2am, when absolutely nobody was awake. It later received some reruns a few years later before disappearing for good sometime in 2020. It was quite ''[[Main/Irony ironic]]'', considering it was named [[Series/TheChaseGameShow The Chase.]] In contrast, the original British version is easily their [[Main/AdoredByTheNetwork favourite show]].