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A basic goal for any TV show is to "win" its timeslot for the network by having the highest ratings, and thus the highest ad revenue. However, there are some battles [[CurbStompBattle you just can't win]]: "AppointmentTelevision" or "must-see TV" events such as [[BigGame sports championships]], {{Award Show}}s, and major premieres/finales are going to win their timeslots no matter what the other networks air.

In response, the other networks may [[KnowWhenToFoldEm not even try to compete for ratings]] and instead look for the least expensive way to fill that airtime. Often, this means reruns of a popular show, a movie marathon, or something else with extremely low production costs. Affiliated networks may actively seek out their ''worst'' programming to avoid interfering with the dominant program's ratings, or even direct viewers to the other channel rather than competing at all.

A variant is scheduling something special during such an event, often during a break in the action. For the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl, this often meant an alternative during the halftime break (although this practice has fell out of favor when the NFL began to make efforts to invite major musicians to play the halftime show rather than performance ensembles such as Up With People).

These are sometimes used to fill a FridayNightDeathSlot.

----
!!Examples:

* UsefulNotes/SuperBowl Sunday:
** During the games, the cable channel Creator/AnimalPlanet schedules a program called the "Series/PuppyBowl" -- basically, extended footage of puppies playing in an enclosure resembling a football stadium, along with "play-by-play" commentary (for many years provided by famed sportscaster Harry Kalas). From the second Puppy Bowl onwards, they had a kitten halftime show, 2013 introduced hedgehog cheerleaders, and 2014 featured guest spots from Franchise/TheMuppets (as a tie-in with the then-upcoming ''Film/MuppetsMostWanted''). Over the years, the Puppy Bowl has become popular enough to crawl out of No Hoper territory. While not coming close to competing with the Super Bowl's viewership, it's repeatedly broken Animal Planet's network records, with ratings increasing from 690K when it premiered in 2005 to 10 million in 2012. It's also gotten popular enough to have its own [[FollowTheLeader imitators]], such as the ''[[EverythingsCuterWithKittens Kitten]]'' [[EverythingsCuterWithKittens Bowl]] which aired on Hallmark Channel (and got a Cat Bowl spinoff in 2019, {{invert|edTrope}}ing the SpinoffBabies trope) until 2022, with Great American Family subsequently reviving it as the "Great American Rescue Bowl" for 2023. In addition, Animal Planet also created an Olympic-themed spin-off of the Puppy Bowl, the Puppy Games, to run opposite the Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies.
** American networks used to attempt to compete with whoever had the contract for the current Super Bowl -- most often airing a special against the halftime show. The practice was codified in 1992 when Fox (in)famously aired a live ''Series/InLivingColor'' special and managed to steal away at least 20 million viewers, prompting the NFL to bring in [[Music/MichaelJackson the big guns]] the following year. Nowadays, as viewership of the halftime shows are just as massive as the game itself, they don't even try. However, in 2010, Fox sacrificed new episodes of ''Series/TilDeath'' to the Super Bowl. The show's U.S. run was on it's last legs, and its distributor had given Fox a discount just so they could rack up enough episodes for syndication.
** North American sports in general come to a standstill on the evening of the Super Bowl. However, there have been exceptions: in Canada, due to scheduling changes prompted by the 2018 Winter Olympics, the finals of a provincial men's curling championship, and more importantly, the championship game of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts -- Canada's women's curling championship, both occurred on the night of the Super Bowl. Cue photos inside Canadian sports bars with televisions set to all three events.
** The No Hoper phenomenon was mentioned InUniverse in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', when Professor Farnsworth pays to have their commercial aired ''during'' the Super Bowl... just not on the channel that's ''showing'' it.
** InUniverse: The first episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' with Luanne's Manger Babies puppets has her getting airtime on Channel 84 opposite the Super Bowl, which puts Hank (cast as God) in a tough spot.
** Green Bay, Wisconsin station [=WCHK-FM=] countered the 2011 Bowl by broadcasting DeadAir, claiming that they were convinced nobody would be listening during a Green Bay Packers Super Bowl appearance.
** Cable channels tend to run movies or [[MarathonRunning TV marathons]] opposite the Bowl. For instance, in 2015, almost every Viacom cable network (except for Creator/NickJr, which ran a ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' marathon) did so with films in their archives: Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} showed their in-house film ''Rags'', and Creator/{{LOGO}} showed ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''. On the series front, The Hub competed in 2013 with a [[WesternAnimation/StrawberryShortcake "Strawberry Bowl"]], the digital subchannel Get TV countered the 2017 Bowl with a marathon of ''Series/TheLifeAndTimesOfGrizzlyAdams'', and Creator/MeTV aired a marathon of Valentine's Day-themed ''Series/FullHouse'' episodes against the pregame in 2022. 2023 brought an all-day marathon of ''Series/DesigningWomen'' episodes to Creator/AntennaTV, dubbed the "Super Belle Sunday". They would repeat this stunt in 2024.
** Another notable Nickelodeon Super Bowl marathon was ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} Rugrats Big Adventure Sunday]]'' in 2013, in which several episodes of ''Rugrats'' and ''WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis'' aired for 5 hours, making it the first time the show had aired episodes on the network in years.
** In 2012, the lead-out program for the Bowl was ''Series/{{Glee}}''. In Canada, while CTV has been the event's broadcaster for a while now, the broadcast rights to ''Glee'' were with Global (who, ironically, used to be the NFL's Canadian broadcaster) at the time. So Global [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ctv-picks-flashpoint-coveted-post-75487 put together]] a "[[{{Pun}} Sue-Per]] Bowl Sunday" marathon of previous ''Glee'' episodes (along with ''Glee''-themed episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''[[Series/TheOfficeUS The Office]]'') before the new episode, "[[Recap/GleeS2E11TheSueSylvesterShuffle The Sue Sylvester Shuffle]]". (CTV went with a new episode of their in-house production ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'' as their lead-out program.)
** NFL Network itself runs a static "Game Center" screen with a scoreboard and audio from the radio broadcast -- meant as a subtle hint for viewers to change the channel and come back later for the post-game. NFL Network used to do something similar on Sundays during the regular season, simulcasting Sirius XM's ''The Sunday Drive'' (basically a radio version of the [=RedZone=] channel), until they replaced it with the studio show ''NFL [=GameDay=] Live'' in 2014.
** In 1986, Creator/{{CBS}} aired a rerun of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' to counterprogram ''Super Bowl XX''[='=]s lead-out, ''Series/TheLastPrecinct'', a ''Film/PoliceAcademy''-esque comedy starring Creator/AdamWest. Infamously, ''The Last Precinct'' performed so awfully that [[EpicFail it managed to lose the ratings to the rerun]].
* In an unusual case of a network running no-hopers ''against themselves'', [=ESPN2=] usually dug out poker to run against ''Series/MondayNightFootball'' during the gap between the start of NFL season and the start of college basketball. In 2017, they decided to fill it with a Spanish simulcast from ESPN Deportes instead, which was in turn replaced by a simulcast with Peyton and Eli Manning chatting over the game with celebrity guests--which proved to be a popular alternative to the main broadcast.
* When the famous ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' "Who Shot J.R.?" episode was first broadcast, NBC officials joked that opposite it they would just run a card reading, "We're watching it too."
* When Johnny Carson aired his final episode as host of ''Series/TheTonightShow'', Creator/ComedyCentral aired a 90-minute live feed of a bottle of Tabasco sauce in an empty talk show set. [=McIlheney's=] Tabasco Sauce was the only advertiser crazy enough to sponsor the channel's Dadaist tribute to a legendary comedian.
* During the GrandFinale episode of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', Creator/{{MTV}} interrupted programming whenever Creator/{{NBC}} went to commercial, and showed a clip from their then-upcoming AnimatedAnthology ''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 ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''... two extremely successful comedies that TV Land expected to syndicate the nostalgic dickens out of in future years.
** In Australia, ''Seinfeld'' was run on two channels--one showed new episodes, one reruns--at about the same time. When the finale was shown on the first channel, the second showed only a black screen.
** On a related note, the pilots of ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch'' went out as Super Bowl halftime counterprogramming. Its series premiere "[[Creator/JerrySeinfeld Seinfeld's Last Stand]]" went out on the same night as the ''Seinfeld'' finale.
* ''Creator/{{Televisa}}'' and ''TV Azteca'' would often do these to each other, mostly with shows of similar nature. One of many examples, on Azteca's premiere of ''La Academia'', Televisa premiered ''[[Series/TheVoice La Voz Kids]]''.
* In many local markets it was for many years assumed that either ''[[Series/TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah]]'' or ''Series/JudgeJudy'' would win the 4pm weekday timeslot, so the other stations aired programs (like local news, sitcom reruns, or talk shows) with low ratings expectations but some hope of maintaining viewer momentum.
* The US version of ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools actually benefited from low ratings expectations for its timeslot]]. Creator/{{ABC}} aired it Thursdays at 8:00 (7:00 Central), opposite ''Series/{{Friends}}'' on NBC and ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' on CBS. ABC knew ''Whose Line'' was cheap to produce and had a dedicated fanbase that would produce ''consistent'' ratings, and the show lasted longer there than it would have in a timeslot with higher overall expectations.
* During the series finale of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', TV Land aired counter-programming that consisted of... a group of young people watching the series finale of ''Friends''.
* For the last few years, every MTV network (including Creator/VH1 and digital channels such as MTV Hits and [=VH1=] Classic) [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and CMT]]) has switched to a black screen directing viewers to MTV during both the ''Video Music Awards'' and the ''MTV Movie Awards''. The same networks used to air their lousiest programming during the former awards show, like ABC's [[AdoredByTheNetwork run-into-the-ground]] TV movie ''The Jacksons: An American Dream''. One year, [=MTV2=] showed a split-screen simulcast of the VMA's, with the official MTV feed in one corner and three other "behind-the-scenes" cameras in the other boxes.
** ESPN has occasionally done special event broadcasts across their channels in a similar format, formerly referred to as ''ESPN Full Circle'', but now referred to as the "Megacast" and typically done for the [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball College Football Playoff]] games. Every ESPN channel airs some feed of the game with alternate perspectives or features -- such as the "Film Room" with extended play analysis by an expert panel (usually including former coaches), a reaction stream of a bunch of personalities just watching the game, Paul Finebaum cheerleading the inevitable SEC team on SEC Network and taking viewer phone calls at halftime (replaced in 2019 by one hosted by the panel of its show ''Thinking Out Loud''), no commentary, alternate camera angles, the teams' radio networks, Spanish, etc.
* Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} now also has their sister networks (and fellow Viacom channels TV Land and CMT) carry the ''Kids's Choice Awards'' in a simulcast to make sure that a rerun of ''Series/OneOnOne'' or ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'' doesn't cost them a thousandth of a ratings point. They now do this with other big events too, such as original movie premieres or major crossover specials.
* The ''[[BeautyContest Miss Venezuela]]'' gala is the Venezuelan equivalent of the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl, and attracts a broad audience; the other channels know this, and either keep their usual schedule or play movies of the national and/or controversial variety. One year, the cast of a popular late show decided that the best way to compete would be simulcasting and {{MST}}ing the beauty contest to turn it into a DrinkingGame. Some parts of the simulcast got higher ratings than the original contest.
* The Mexican soccer finals, as well as some derby matches such as Chivas vs. América, are often broadcast against old movies as Mexico's other TV channels don't bother to compete.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'', especially in it's native United Kingdom:
** The series 4 finale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] was hyped weeks before it was aired, with the excitement level growing exponentially. It had an expected viewership of 10 million, so Creator/TheBBC's rival Creator/{{ITV}} showed ''Film/KindergartenCop'' 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'' crashed and burned in the ratings, though, and became a national joke within days. ITV subsequently realized 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 ''Series/CoronationStreet'' from 1987-1989.
* During the 2008 Olympics, Australian cable channel [=Fox8=] aired a non-stop marathon of all of Creator/{{Fox}}'s animated series, including ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons, WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy, WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill, WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. It almost worked, until they ran out of ''American Dad'' episodes so they had to run repeats of the No-Hoper Repeat during the extended No-Hoper Repeat.
** During the 2004 Olympics, they just showed ''Simpsons'' episodes during the day. That's right, at least ''six hours'' of ''Simpsons'' episodes a ''day''.
* The terrorist attacks of 9/11 and UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror are a spectacular example. Any channel with even a tangential relationship to news reporting was airing non-stop updates, while other networks aired the most anodyne canned material they could find (partially out of respect and partially because they knew no one was watching - including themselves), and some just stopped broadcast altogether. Thankfully, such programming provided an opportunity to escape from the HeroicBSOD for a few minutes, if needed. Very little original programming aired on any network for at least a week. Sites like the [[http://archive.org/details/911/day/20010912#/ Understanding 9/11]] repository from the Internet Archive show how much the different networks' coverage converged immediately after the attacks. (Website/TheOnion [[https://web.archive.org/web/20100325205520/http://www.theonion.com/issue/3734/ also not only provided a spot-on "On TV Tonight"...]], but parodied this trope in a piece about the new "[[http://www.theonion.com/articles/network-programming-dominated-by-surreality-tv,3293/ surreality TV]]" genre spawned in the wake of the attack.)
** Several morning shows pre-empted programming to air simulcasts of major broadcast networks, or simply canceled their regular programming altogether. Some, like ''The Today Show'', intercut between live news coverage and updates from hosts in the studio, while ''Live! With Regis and Kelly'' (as seen in a broadcast unearthed and posted in late 2023) was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h1wDjMwkOA&t=438s on-air long enough]] to have its hosts comment on what was happening (while trying to reassure the audience) before cutting in ABC News broadcasts for the rest of the hour.
** On the day of the attacks, Creator/{{MTV}} and its sister station Creator/VH1 did a national simulcast of coverage from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's Viacom-owned [[Creator/{{CBS}} WCBS-TV]], the only major English-language station still broadcasting in the City (they had a backup tower on the Empire State Building, unlike the other stations). For the following week, MTV aired a nonstop music video loop, consisting entirely of Music/DestinysChild's "Emotion", Music/NellyFurtado's "I'm Like a Bird", and Music/{{U2}}'s "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of".
** Like MTV, Creator/{{BET}} initially simulcast coverage from CBS, then switched to blocks of music videos interspersed with periodic updates from BET's own news division.
** Creator/DiscoveryChannel pulled a variety of documentaries out of their archives and aired them one after the other for the week after the tragedy.
** One of the few bits of original programming that did air in the week following the tragedy was, of all things, ProfessionalWrestling: in a widely criticized move, [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} the WWF]] held a special live edition of ''[[Wrestling/WWESmackDown SmackDown!]]'' just two days after 9/11, featuring exhibition matches (with no storylines advanced) to entertain the fans. Wrestling/VinceMcMahon came out at the top of the show to beam with pride that it was the first such large gathering since the attacks (which was true, as most sporting events in the immediate wake of the attack were postponed or canceled), and painted it as a defiant statement against fear of terrorism. Incidentally, the reason that ''[=SmackDown!=]'' was a "special live edition" was that the show was originally scheduled to tape on Tuesday... September 11. That event, naturally, got cancelled.
** HGTV and Creator/FoodNetwork left the air completely, showing only still screens for two days, knowing that nobody was in the mood to be instructed on anything. In Food's case, it was because it was located in lower Manhattan where a mandatory evacuation occurred, and presumably running cooking shows was a very low priority for anyone. Other specialty networks owned by broadcaster Scripps Media aired static images (some with voiceovers) imploring residents to donate to emergency resources.
** Some Creator/{{PBS}} stations aired kids' programming (including several rarely-aired and/or long-cancelled shows such as ''Series/TotsTV'', ''WesternAnimation/TheodoreTugboat'', ''Series/TheNoddyShop'' and ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresFromTheBookOfVirtues'') almost all day during the two weeks after the tragedy so that children would have '''something''' to watch besides news on the regular networks. Cable networks such as Creator/DisneyChannel, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} and Creator/CartoonNetwork, as well as UPN's Disney One Too block and Creator/NickJr on Creator/{{CBS}}, presumably followed their example.
*** San Jose's PBS affiliate KTEH, on the other hand, showed some of the anime shows they had, such as ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''[[note]]they were known to run anime in the late 90s and early 2000s, even being the first American channel to run ''Evangelion''[[/note]], in place of their broadcasts of ''The Travel Auction'', with scrolling messages throughout giving condolences to those affected and urging viewers to donate blood to the American Red Cross. [[https://fxtwitter.com/OtakuD50/status/1553954918527946753 See this video for proof.]]
** For the first several hours after the attacks Creator/{{ESPN}} ran coverage from ABC News. After much soul-searching in Bristol about whether to air ''Series/SportsCenter'', the network decided to go forward with an episode that merely informed viewers of the sports events that had been cancelled or otherwise affected by the day's grim events. Had the decision gone the other way, it would have been the only day in the network's history without at least one airing of ''[=SportsCenter=]''.
** The Latin Grammys were to broadcast that evening on CBS from Los Angeles. The ceremony never took place and the awards were given out at a news conference over a month and a half later. Other new programming was delayed for a bit out of respect, including the premiere of the short-lived ''Emeril''. The Emmys (which were to broadcast just a few days later) were also affected, however unlike the Latin Grammys it was simply delayed to October, then delayed ''again'' when the War on Terror really started to sizzle. The ceremony would eventually take place in November - just in time for UsefulNotes/{{sweeps}}.
** In Canada, almost every major basic cable station ran news reports about the tragedy - except for youth programming channels, which continued airing repeats of their early morning shows (i.e. stuff for the little ones rather than the {{KidCom}}s and {{Teen Drama}}s normally seen later in the day), and public access stations, almost all of which went to a static image saying that programming was suspended.
** ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''[='=]s first episode after the attack opened with [[BigDamnHeroes New York Firemen]] on stage with mayor Rudolph Giuliani giving the audience permission to laugh.
** Subverted by ''WebVideo/TheFundayPawpetShow'', which usually ran on Sunday nights. The cast of the (Internet-based) 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' per se, it was not recorded by the creators. The only known recording was viewer-made.
** Some radio stations switched to their all-Christmas format in October as a result of people wanting LighterAndSofter programming in wake of the attacks. It was successful, and the [[ChristmasCreep tradition]] continues to this day.
** Creator/TheWeatherChannel continued on with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDHQSvD47Cc business as usual]], with the occasional subtle nod to the day's events such as noting that major theme parks were closed and skipping their international forecast because leaving the country was impossible at the time.
* Parodied on ''[[Series/LateNight Late Night With Conan O'Brien]]''; when the Winter Olympics in Nagano were on Creator/{{CBS}} against his show, Conan decided that they could do pretty much anything they wanted "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsSvQc9TqRs because nobody's watching]]". Antics ensued, such as Conan and Andy smoking cigarettes, Conan confessing that he wore a Music/{{Hanson}} t-shirt under his suit, along with [[TakeThat his hatred for]] [[MediumAwareness the NBC logo in the corner of the screen]] (proceeding to douse it with [[StealthPun bug spray]]), Max Weinberg confessing that he murdered Music/BruceSpringsteen's drummer (and other people he didn't like), and [[Series/{{Today}} Al Roker]] stopping by to confess that he had no interest in being a weatherman, and thought the job would lead to an acting career.
** He did a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKyXKti7JtU similar sketch]] in May 2001 after realizing that NBC's coverage of an NBA playoff game had likely preempted his show into a later time slot than usual. This time, Conan confessed that most of his production staff were kids, he listened to an album called "Cuddle Tunes" in bed, the entire universe was the product of James Van Der Beek's thoughts, and [[TheAnnouncer Joel Godard]] shared a clip of his new "film" ''Stripes of Honor''.
* During the fifteenth series of ''Series/TopGear'', the trio knew that one of their episodes was going to go out against UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup Final on both BBC and ITV. Figuring no-one would be watching, they didn't put much effort into the episode, which didn't even include a Power Lap, although it did contain two Star-in-a-Reasonably-Priced-Car records being broken: Rubens Barrichello on the F1 leaderboard, and Creator/RupertGrint in the Cee'd (and breaking the Liana and Lacetti records before it). The following week, Jeremy Clarkson admitted even he didn't watch that episode, as he was in Johannesburg at the final at the time. A similar thing happened again when they realized they were in a losing fight against ''BBC Sports Personality Of The Year''.
* 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=]'', the most watched programme in Australian TV history. Eventually, everyone decided to hold the debate before the ''[=MasterChef=]'' finale so people could watch both.
* This was attempted in reverse by the UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush 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. The broadcast networks foiled this plan by quickly accommodating the debates in their schedules. 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 UsefulNotes/BarackObama's first State of the Union address would conflict with ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s sixth season premiere, ''the president'' rescheduled. He reshuffled to accommodate the TV schedule again in September 2011 for a speech to Congress that had already been rescheduled once to appease the GOP (it had originally been set for the night of a Republican primary debate), which was shuffled again to an earlier time to avoid competing with the Saints/Packers NFL kickoff game. Needless to say, in Wisconsin and Louisiana? You didn't see that speech on NBC at all.
* NBC used Music/TheMonkees special ''33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee'' as this, scheduling it against the 1969 Academy Awards on the West Coast (it aired an hour before East Coast).
* For Election Day 2004, Adult Swim repeated ''one new episode'' of ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' all night long -- a thematically relevant Quick Draw [=McGraw=] episode where Phil Ken Sebben runs for President thanks to support from The Guitar Lobby.
* British soap operas ''Series/EastEnders'' and ''Series/CoronationStreet'' used to battle it out in the ratings, but now none of the soaps from the main three terrestrial channels run simultaneously. In fact, you can watch ''Series/{{Hollyoaks}}'', ''Series/{{Emmerdale}}'', ''Coronation Street'', and then ''[=EastEnders=]'' one after another.
* For the last few years, every time [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]] matches are broadcast, German network Pro 7 has put on a comedy marathon (''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/TwoAndAHalfMen'', ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', etc. depending on the current day of the week).
* In the UK, Creator/TheBBC has played this along with a TakeThat, going up against the ''Series/BigBrother'' finale with an episode of ''Judge John Deed'' making fun of reality TV.
* Variant: Brazilian channel Record, whose owner is the founder of the megachurch [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IURD Universal Church of the Kingdom of God]], failed to acquire 2014 UsefulNotes/FIFAWorldCup broadcast rights. Instead, they aired religious movies/miniseries, and the channel president/church leader requested a "TV fast" from his followers during the Cup; the church tried to cover up the obvious motive by saying the cause of such an attitude was a new temple instead of TV ratings.
* For a period, Creator/{{CTV}} counter-programmed ''Series/HockeyNightInCanada'' on Saturday evenings with a marathon of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' reruns (as if [[AdoredByTheNetwork it doesn't get run enough by CTV and its sister networks to begin with]]) that was dubbed ''Big Bang Night in Canada''.
** CTV tried to drag away some viewers from the 2016 Summer Olympics by running the first season of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' uncut and uncensored on ''broadcast TV''.
* For several years, the ''Series/AmericanIdol'' finale was a one-episode wrecking crew guaranteed to wipe out any competitor that dared to face it.
** After years of being on Sunday for such a reason, CBS decided that diminishing ratings for Idol finally made it safe to put the season finale of ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' (resuming with Cagayan) on a weekday.
** Fox counterprogrammed the premiere of the ABC revival by showing ''O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?'', a special featuring footage from a cancelled O.J. interview special for his book ''If I Did It'', in which he hypothetically described how he would have performed the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, if he were the one responsible. The special was supposed to air in 2005, nearly 13 years earlier.
* On the UK Polling Day 2015, E4 [[http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/election-2015-e4-been-turned-5649833 broadcast 12 hours of an overweight man in an ill-fitting tshirt sitting in a white room swinging around on his chair to muzak, playing the pan-pipes badly and occasionally just reading a book]] in order to encourage young people to go out and vote.
* Just prior to the final episode of ''Series/TheLateShowWithDavidLetterman'' (which aired on May 20, 2015 on Creator/{{CBS}}), Creator/ConanOBrien told the audience some fond memories about Letterman's help during his early career, then [[http://teamcoco.com/video/goodbye-dave advised the people watching]] [[Series/{{Conan}} his show]] at home during the opening monologue to switch over and watch the episode instead of his; this was an easy call as the shows only overlapped by 25 minutes.
* Golf Channel tends to broadcast golf-related movies such as ''Film/TinCup'', ''Film/TheLegendOfBaggerVance'' and ''The Greatest Game Ever Played'', or in some cases, a marathon of ''Feherty'', when another channel is broadcasting coverage of a major tournament (usually out of respect, there are no other golf events going on against majors).
* On a related note, the PGA Tour sometimes runs a No-Hoper ''Tournament'', officially known as an "alternate event", against selected limited-field events, such as World Golf Championships events or majors, including the Sanderson Farms Championship (which currently counters the HSBC Champions, but has also countered the Masters and The Open in the past), the Puerto Rico Open (WGC Match Play), the Barracuda Championship (formerly the Reno–Tahoe Open, against the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. To mix things up, it is also notably the only PGA Tour event to use the Stableford scoring system), and the Barbasol Championship (held against the Open Championship). As the field is weaker, these events award fewer points for the World Golf Ranking and [=FedEx Cup=], and winners do not receive an invite to The Masters.
** [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools However]], players can still earn a two-year membership on the PGA Tour and an invite to the PGA Championship if they win -- which can give lower-tier players ADayInTheLimelight. In 2016, the Barracuda Championship retroactively invited top-5 finishers to the Open Championship if they weren't already in the tournament, since the Greenbrier Classic (which was designated as an event on the Open Qualifying Series -- meaning that this same path was to be available there) was flooded out and cancelled.
* In [[http://www.satirewire.com/content1/?p=951 this]] [=SatireWire=] story, everyone is too busy watching the 2000 election recount to notice a reunion of Music/TheBeatles ([[BackFromTheDead including]] Music/JohnLennon), [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict Israel and Palestine]] declaring peace, an a-bomb levelling {{UsefulNotes/China}}, Microsoft taking over the internet, or UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} returning.
* When the Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} family of networks have their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwide_Day_of_Play Worldwide Day of Play]], they tend to suspend programming for a few hours so kids can "get up, go outside and play". Therefore, other kids' networks will air programming to entertain those who don't feel like going outside but want to watch ''something'' besides a static screen on any of the Nick channels, making Nick's tactic a bit useless, for at least a few hours. Take 2016 for instance:
** Cartoon Network showed an all-day ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' marathon (keep in mind, they do this ''[[AdoredByTheNetwork a lot]]'', using any excuse).
** Creator/DisneyChannel ran marathons for ''WesternAnimation/TheZhuZhus'' and ''WesternAnimation/ElenaOfAvalor''.
** Creator/DiscoveryFamily showed a new episode of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and a ''Series/CakeBoss'' special.
** Creator/DisneyXD showed a ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' marathon.
** Disney Junior showed 1-hour specials based on their shows as well as the film ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch''.
** [[Creator/{{Sprout}} PBS Kids Sprout]] showed a marathon of ''The Doozers'' (a spinoff of ''Series/FraggleRock'').
** Boomerang showed a ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' marathon.
** [[Creator/{{TBN}} Smile of a Child]] showed the ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' special "If I Sang A Silly Song" along with "[=LarryBoy=] and the Bad Apple". The former is shown a lot on Smile of a Child whenever there's a high-profile event on another channel.
* Disney Channel broadcast an airing of ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' opposite Creator/{{Fox}}'s [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShowLetsDoTheTimeWarpAgain remake]] of ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''. This choice may have been an intentional joke on Disney's part, since Kenny Ortega was involved with both productions.
** Similarly, the Disney-owned Creator/{{Freeform}} broadcasted ''WesternAnimation/GnomeoAndJuliet'' against TBS' premiere of its' sequel, ''WesternAnimation/SherlockGnomes''.
* NBC breaks out "Vintage" ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' when they have ''absolutely nothing else'' to stick in the 10PM Saturday night slot or, for instance, against the World Series. These tend to be recent if planned - but if NBC's own intended sporting event is cancelled they break out the original-cast episodes from TheSeventies.
* When the final episode of ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' premiered, Fox countered it with an hourlong "Bart Bonanza" of two fan-favorite ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episodes, [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E21ThreeMenAndAComicBook "Three Men and a Comic Book"]] and [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E13RadioBart "Radio Bart"]]. It ended with a short animation (which was almost entirely the scene from [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E7BartVsThanksgiving "Bart vs. Thanksgiving"]] where Homer and Bart watch the Thanksgiving parade, redubbed with new dialogue) that has (despite never being shown again, even on the [=DVDs=]) proven to be HilariousInHindsight regarding the subsequent SeasonalRot of ''The Simpsons''.
* On the day of the first half of ''Series/TheVoice''[='=]s eleventh season finale, all of Turner's channels decided to show different marathons to compete against it:
** TBS showed a marathon of Seth [=McFarlane=]'s animated shows, which started at 2:00PM as opposed to their usual 5:00PM timeslot on Mondays.
** TNT showed ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' three times in a row.
** Cartoon Network once again showed a ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' marathon.
** Boomerang showed a marathon of ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' films.
* This often happens during presidential inaugurations as well. For viewers not interested in watching it, the other channels will often show marathons or movies ([[TakeAThirdOption or both]]). This mostly happens on children's channels, but sometimes networks of other genres do it as well. Case in point: During Donald Trump's inauguration, TBS aired a ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' marathon, and Food Network aired a marathon of ''Cake Wars''.
** Creator/ComedyCentral, on the other hand, went down the TakeThat route and broadcast an all-day ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' season 20 marathon, given that the main story arc of the season involves Mr. Garrison being an {{Expy}} of Trump and being elected president. Meanwhile in Canada, Creator/TheComedyNetwork broadcast the [[Main/TheRoast Comedy Central Roast]] of Trump on a loop all day (which, itself, contains a few moments that are HilariousInHindsight). Both paused for a special, Friday-night edition of ''Series/TheDailyShow'' recapping the day's events (the show usually only broadcasts Monday through Thursday).
* On February 15th, 2016 Disney XD aired the highly anticipated GrandFinale of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''. In an attempt to pull viewers from it, Cartoon Network aired an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' called "Pyramid Scheme". It didn’t work.
* Another excuse to show marathons or movies on television is the annual ''700 Club'' telethon, which preempts programming on all Creator/{{TBN}}-owned networks (except Smile of a Child) and Creator/{{Freeform}}[[note]]This is not as much a case of MyFriendsAndZoidberg as you would believe: the channel was founded by Pat Robertson, the creator of ''700 Club'', and it's still contracted to show it despite its change in format, and still has to clear programming space for one day in January for the telethon[[/note]]. To entertain the viewers who otherwise would not be interested in the telethon (especially Freeform viewers, as the marathon takes over the Sunday movie marathon's timeslot), other channels will play marathons of their shows to compete with them, usually aimed at Freeform's teen demographic. Here's what happened in 2017:
** Cartoon Network showed a ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' marathon.
** Disney Channel showed a marathon of ''Series/{{Bizaardvark}}'', followed by four episodes of ''Series/HannahMontana'' in the evening.
** Nickelodeon showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''.
** Disney XD had two marathons: ''Anime/YoKaiWatch'' in the morning, and ''Series/KirbyBuckets'' in the afternoon.
** TBS made up for the loss of Freeform's Sunday movies and showed ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' and ''Film/HallPass'', two comedies popular with teenagers that are rarely screened on the network.
** Disney Junior showed ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' twice, along with the Northern Lights special.
** Starz Kids played virtually the entire Creator/{{Pixar}} library, skipping over any sequels or prequels.
** Discovery Family showed marathons of ''Series/HorribleHistories'' and ''Series/CakeBoss''.
* President's Day 2017 had a unique example of No Hoper. While almost every kids/youth network had a marathon of some sort[[note]]the exception being Creator/DiscoveryFamily, who instead extended the hours of their morning block for one day only[[/note]], the biggest event to come out of any of them was [[MilestoneCelebration the 200th episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''. Meanwhile, on most of the other networks...
** Cartoon Network followed their ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo Friday Party'' schedule format - basically, eight hours of ''TTG'', with the rest of the time devoted to new episodes of Cartoon Network's current shows, including the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs2017''.
** Disney Channel showed a hodgepodge of live-action [[FilmOfTheBook films based on books]], mostly in-house productions.
** Sprout showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'' trilogy on a loop.
** Disney Junior marathoned ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseClubhouse'' and ''Mickey And The Roadster Racers''.
** Nick Jr. showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/MaxAndRuby''.
** Disney XD showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''.
** Boomerang showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'', along with the films ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheAlienInvaders'' and ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool''.
** Smile of a Child (now simply going by "Smile" as part of a network revamp) began their day with six episodes of ''Auto B. Good'', then showed all eight ''WesternAnimation/VeggieTales'' "[=LarryBoy=]" episodes, capping it off with the ''If I Sang A Silly Song'' special.
* {{Defied|Trope}} with HBO. Since their Sunday night lineup as it stood during February 2017 (''Literature/BigLittleLies'', ''Series/{{Girls}}'' and ''Series/CrashingUS'') conflicted with the Oscars, they made the newest episodes of each series available on their streaming services two days early, so fans wouldn't have to flip back and forth between them. However, ''Series/LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver'' has aired episodes against the Academy Awards, once even [[https://images.genius.com/192b3734e4fbe81c40411fbcd2a4307d.1000x557x1.png mocking them in the]] [[CouchGag last title card]].
** They also defied this when the fifth episode of ''Series/TheLastOfUs2023'' was scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday, by airing it on the main channel ''and'' HBO Max two days early.
* Borderline example: When NBC premiered ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'', ABC aired ''WesternAnimation/OverTheHedge'' on the same night, at the same time.
* During the Nickelodeon premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', many kids' networks showed other things to compete against it:
** Disney Channel showed the ''Series/StuckInTheMiddle'' special ''Stuck In The Waterpark''.
** Disney Junior showed ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs''.
** Nick Jr. showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/ShimmerAndShine'', and premiered the show ''Sunny Day''.
** Cartoon Network showed another ''Teen Titans Go'' marathon to premiere a new episode.
** Sprout showed ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove''.
** Creator/PBSKids showed ''Series/OddSquad Saves The World''.
** Disney XD showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw''.
* Kevin O'Keefe of [[https://mic.com/articles/181507/what-happened-to-all-the-good-new-summer-tv#.vj7CnKzNz Mic.com]] posits that one of the reasons (among many) that, in 2017, many shows that normally premiered in the summer instead delayed their premiers to the fall is because of this trope. ''Series/GameOfThrones'' season 7 finished airing in August instead of June as usual, meaning that the whole summer was dominated by ''Game of Thrones'' coverage. This would mean that many critically acclaimed but less ubiquitous shows that normally do relatively well ratings-wise would likely be overshadowed by ''Game of Thrones''.
* If a new preschool series premieres on either Disney Junior or Creator/PBSKids or a special episode of a preschool series is broadcast on either channel [[note]]such as the ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' episode of ''WesternAnimation/DocMcStuffins'' or the first episodes of ''Series/SesameStreet'' to feature the new characters Julia and Rudy[[/note]] and said premiere happens to be on a weekday morning, Nickelodeon will usually counter-program it with an all-day marathon of ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol''. On some occasions, like the second season premiere of ''WesternAnimation/MickeyAndTheRoadsterRacers'', there will only be a marathon during the actual time period they're competing with, with the rest of the day being comprised of their regular programming.
** Once Creator/{{Cartoonito}} was launched, they would compete with their programming with ''PAW Patrol'' marathons, too. For example, on July 25, 2022, the day ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunnyBuilders'' premiered, the Nick Jr. block was (with the exception of a new episode of ''Face's Music Party'') was nothing but ''PAW Patrol''.
* The ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' episodes "Grandmum's The Word" and "Old Man Patrick" were bumped up from late March 2018 to February 16th, 2018 because of this trope, since that day was the premiere of the Creator/DisneyChannel original movie ''Film/Zombies2018''.
** They would later do this again when the sequel to that film was released, with the channel counter-programming two ValentinesDayEpisodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' that were supposed to air a week earlier.
* This also tends to happen during the Oscars as well, with networks running marathons of movies and/or TV shows against the ceremony. (As described further up, HBO defied this practice in 2017 by offering their Sunday lineup a few days early.)
* Sometimes if a network plans a No-Hoper Repeat in advance against a certain special event or episode of a TV show and said event gets either cancelled or rescheduled, they will pull it from their lineup. Case in point: Cartoon Network was going to air an all-weekend long marathon of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' on Memorial Day weekend against "Tripped!", a highly anticipated special of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''. [[note]] Cartoon Network tends to do this a lot against highly-anticipated episodes of ''The Loud House'', which is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] since it's the ratings rival of ''Teen Titans Go!''.[[/note]] When Nickelodeon dropped the special from their schedule [[note]] Making matters worse, it was the '''third time''' "Tripped!" was pulled before airing. The special was initially supposed to be shown in early May, then was moved a week later only to be replaced by a rerun of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants''.[[/note]] to make room for a behind the scenes special about ''Series/TheThundermans'' to celebrate said show's GrandFinale, Cartoon Network changed their schedule to their normal weekend one.
** Speaking of ''Teen Titans Go!'', most of the show's marathons that do not promote a new episode are this. The most common reason for these no-hoper marathons is to compete with a new Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} premiere that is hyped up, which is usually a new special for ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' or ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''. This even extends to the specials based on older properties like ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling]]''. Another common reason to hold no-hoper marathons of ''Teen Titans Go!'' is during bad weather events like snowstorms and hurricanes, to the point where [[http://mimitchi333.tumblr.com/post/172136653526/just-another-average-day-for-cartoon-network a photo of the schedule at the time of Winter Storm Toby]] actually [[MemeticMutation went viral]]. Holidays are yet another excuse to marathon the show, as best exemplified with [[https://cnschedulearchive.tumblr.com/post/168642440055/as-much-as-id-like-to-claim-this-is-a-practical the Christmas/New Year's schedule in 2017]] (''Titans'' takes up a whopping 99%[!] of the daytime schedule, only broken up by a half-hour of''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episodes), which went even ''more'' [[MemeticMutation viral]] and to this day is still held up as an especially egregious example of AdoredByTheNetwork.
* This also tends to happen during the Tony Awards, with channels marathoning various movies against the ceremony. Sometimes, series themselves can be given a marathon: for example, in 2018, Cartoon Network showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}}'' and Nick at Nite showed a marathon of ''Series/FullHouse''.
* Antena 3, one of Spain's biggest three channels, is often criticized for re-broadcasting movies they've already aired, or simply putting in a cheap movie nobody cares about, on Thursday nights against Telecinco's long-established reality shows (which include the likes of the Spanish versions of ''Series/BigBrother'' and ''Series/{{Survivor}}''), to the point that occasionally Telecinco itself will exploit it by programming 'special' episodes of these reality shows at other points of the week with the intention of sinking the ratings of Antena 3's newest shows.
* On the day of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'''s series finale, Nickelodeon ran a ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' school-themed compilation at the same time to counter-program it.
* In Australia, pay TV channel Fox Footy has live coverage of every match in the [[UsefulNotes/AustralianRulesFootball Australian Football League]] ... except for the Grand Final (which is carried exclusively by the Seven Network). The channel still carries halftime coverage, though, and runs a countdown to said coverage on the channel during the game.
* On the same day Nickelodeon ran a ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' marathon in remembrance of Stephen Hillenberg, Cartoon Network ran a three-hour marathon of ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama'' at the same time.
* On January 21, 2019, Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} aired the MadeForTVMovie ''Bixler High, Private Eye'' at the same time as the largely-hyped ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' ExtraLongEpisode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E28ChangeYourMind Change Your Mind]]" to counter-program it.
* Since 1993, the UK's Creator/Channel4 has countered the traditional Royal Christmas Message on Christmas Day with an "alternative Christmas message" -- which is presented by a celebrity and tends to be more unconventional in nature. The first was delivered by Quentin Crisp (who was actually born on Christmas, and represented a [[CampGay slightly different definition of the word "queen"]]), and it has since been presented by such figures as Jesse Jackson, [[Series/DaAliGShow Ali G]], Sharon Osbourne, Marge Simpson (promoting their recent acquisition of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''), Jamie Oliver, Edward Snowden, child survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, [[Series/TheLastLeg Adam Hills]] (which focused primarily on London's successful hosting of the Paralympics), [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad]]. Sister channel E4 has also gotten in on the fun with an alternative alternative Christmas message.
* On July 1, 2019, Creator/NickJr aired a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' specials [[note]] In order: "The New Pup", "Tracker Joins The Pups" and "Pups' Winter Wonder Show" [[/note]] against the first re-run of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyRainbowRoadtrip''.
* At the same time as the premiere of ''[[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants [=SpongeBob=]'s Big Birthday Blowout]]'', some children's networks changed their schedules to show something else against it
** Cartoon Network aired the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' special "Island Adventures".
** With the exception of Disney XD [[note]] which showed a marathon of ''[[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 [=DuckTales=]]]''[[/note]], all Disney-owned networks aired movies during the special, with Disney Channel showing ''Film/Zombies2018'', Disney Junior showing ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}'' and Freeform showing ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''.
** Smile aired the movie ''Anything Is Possible''.
** HBO Family aired the ''Series/FraggleRock'' episode "A Brush With Jealousy", followed by a new episode of ''WesternAnimation/EsmeAndRoy''.
** Creator/PBSKids aired ''[[WesternAnimation/LetsGoLuna Luna's Christmas Around The World]]''.
** Starz Kids and Family showed ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie''.
* Inversion: In 1986, ''Series/TheCosbyShow'' was prime time's number one show. It couldn't fail even when it was in summer repeats as CBS ran a six-week prime time edition of ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' against it; the ratings for ''Price'' were only one-third of what Cosby was earning.
* When the ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' episode "Mighty Pups, Super [=PAWs=]: Pups Meet The Mighty Twins", which introduced two new characters, premiered on Nickelodeon, three networks aimed at children counter-programmed either marathons or new episodes of preschool programming against it.
** While the Creator/PBSKids block aired a normal schedule on most affiliates, WGBH aired a marathon of the ToiletTrainingPlot episodes of ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'' against the episode. Meanwhile, the digital PBS Kids channel aired ''[[WesternAnimation/PegPlusCat Peg + Cat Save The World]]''.
** The Disney Junior block on Disney Channel aired a new episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}}'' against the special, while the Disney Junior digital channel marathoned ''WesternAnimation/MickeyAndTheRoadsterRacers''.
** Creator/UniversalKids ran a marathon of ''Animation/MashaAndTheBear''.
* When ''[[Film/{{Descendants}} Descendants 3]]'' premiered on Creator/DisneyChannel, most of the major kids' networks (and even two networks owned by Disney themselves) showed marathons or movies against it:
** Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} aired two showings of ''[[Film/ThePrincessDiaries The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement]]'', another royalty-themed film.
** Creator/NickJr aired ''[[WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer Dora Saves The Crystal Kingdom]]'', followed by the ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' special "The Golden Boots".
** Creator/NickToons showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse''.
** Creator/PBSKids aired a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/MarthaSpeaks''.
** Creator/UniversalKids showed a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''.
** Smile aired ''The Lion Of Judah'', followed by ''WesternAnimation/JonahAVeggieTalesMovie''.
** HBO Family aired a marathon of Warner Brothers movies, including ''WesternAnimation/{{Smallfoot}}'' and ''Film/Paddington2'', followed by an airing of ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2''.
** Disney Junior aired a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks''.
** Disney XD aired a marathon of ''[[Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon Pokémon Sun and Moon: Ultra Adventures]]''.
* On August 26, 2019, Nick Jr. ran an all-afternoon ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' marathon against the cable premieres of ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby'' and ''WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie'', which itself was competing with the MTV Music Awards.
* On September 2, 2019, the premiere date of the enormously-hyped ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'', Nick and Disney competed against it:
** Disney aired the ''Film/{{Descendants}}'' trilogy to counter-program it.
** Nick's is an interesting case. They aired a sneak peek of their four-episode mini-series, ''Middle School Moguls'', directly after the movie. However, people were too excited about the movie and posting about it online to watch it.
* Nickelodeon ran ''Film/Journey2TheMysteriousIsland'' opposite the October 27, 2019 airing of ''WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown'' on ABC.
* Almost every kids' channel tried to compete against each other on November 27, 2019 to compete with that day's airing of ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownThanksgiving'' on ABC as well as the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' special "Beast Boy: That's What Up!" on Cartoon Network and the premiere of a new ''PAW Patrol'' episode on Nickelodeon:
** Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} aired ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', ''WesternAnimation/TheCasagrandes'', and ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' all day.
** Creator/CartoonNetwork aired a ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' marathon followed by ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie''.
** Creator/DisneyChannel aired a ''Series/RavensHome'' marathon.
** Creator/PBSKids aired movies from several of their shows: ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'', ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'', ''WesternAnimation/NatureCat'', and ''Series/OddSquad'', and they premiered 3 back-to-back episodes of ''WesternAnimation/XavierRiddleAndTheSecretMuseum''.
** Creator/TeenNick aired a ''Series/GameShakers'' marathon.
** Creator/{{Nicktoons}} aired a marathon of the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' franchise, followed by the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanVsTheTeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''.
** Creator/NickJr aired a ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' marathon.
** Creator/DisneyXD aired an ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' marathon.
** Creator/{{Qubo}} aired a marathon of ''The Adventures Of Paddington Bear''.
* Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} used to counter-program their airings of the Nick version of ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' against Creator/DisneyChannel's airings of Disney's version of ''Doug''.
* When Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} aired a live show of ''Theatre/TheSpongeBobMusical'' on December 2019, ABC counter programmed it with a rerun of ''[[Series/WaltDisneyPresents The Wonderful World of Disney:]] Theatre/TheLittleMermaid Live!'' on the same night.
* As Russia had advanced to the gold medal game of the 2020 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, its broadcast in the country was moved to Channel One at the last minute. The sports network Match TV -- which had carried all other games up to that point -- showed a rerun of the 2011 gold medal game (Russia's most recent gold medal win) against it. As both games involved Canada and Russia, this led to confusion when some viewers thought that the game on Match TV ''was'' the 2020 game. [[DontCelebrateJustYet Cue Russians celebrating their victory from nine years ago on social media]], until they realized ''Canada'' had won. One of said viewers was the head of Russia's PE, Sports, Tourism and Youth Matters Committee, who probably should've known better ([[https://tjournal.ru/internet/134596-vo-vremya-finala-molodezhnogo-chempionata-mira-po-hokkeyu-match-tv-pokazal-zapis-finala-2011-goda-ne-vse-zametili-raznicu he apparently lost a game of Alias and had to post the "wrong" results and congratulations message on Instagram]]). Another mistaken viewer was someone who actually played for Russia in that game; he had it on in the background without sound on, and got a little confused when he noticed ''himself'' on the ice.
* In mid-March 2020, the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic had this impact on several networks and the shows, events and movies they aired:
** It turned almost every sports channel, and weekend afternoon on the major networks, into a sea of such content (particularly "classic" event encores, usually saved for the off-season) since nearly all sports have been suspended or cancelled worldwide, to various degrees (to the point Website/TheOtherWiki considers it the largest disruption to the sporting calendar since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). There have been aversions, including [[UsefulNotes/ProfessionalGaming eSports]] competitions (such as online races involving drivers from suspended racing series), ESPN attempting to run a H-O-R-S-E competition using webcams and NBA players' personal courts, both CBS and Fox replacing cancelled award shows with "living room concert" specials as an alternative, and Wrestling/{{WWE}} and Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling going on with their shows in smaller studios with no audience.
** On April 18, 2020, three of the Big Four networks aired the benefit special ''One World: Together at Home'', but Fox didn't participate, having already broadcast the ''iHeart Living Room Concert for America'' weeks before. They ended up scheduling repeats of ''Series/NineOneOne'' and ''Creator/GordonRamsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back'' opposite ''One World''.
** Several children's networks made changes to their schedule as a result of the pandemic. Disney Channel and Nickelodeon had to adjust their schedules to account for the fact that most children were off from school thanks to the pandemic by ending their preschool blocks early. Certain episodes of their programming that depicted sick characters were pulled, and like PBS Kids' post-9/11 lineup, some channels pulled out older programming, some of which hadn't been rerun in ''years'', to entertain viewers (for example, Creator/DisneyJunior began to re-run ''WesternAnimation/DocMcStuffins'')
** Some general entertainment cable channels decided to put on family-oriented programming to comfort children. The most notable example was when most Warner Media-owned networks[[note]]HBO, TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Tru TV[[/note]] [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and]] Creator/PBSKids showed the ''Series/SesameStreet'' special ''Elmo's Playdate'' on the evening of April 14th, with the regular PBS network showing it during daytime hours the following day. A few broadcast channels also did stuff like this, mostly ABC (owned by Disney), who not only put off two successful ''Disney Family Singalong'' FollowTheBouncingBall specials, but resurrected the weekly ''[[Series/WaltDisneyPresents The Wonderful World of Disney]]'' for a four-week stint in May-June 2020, showing (in order) ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'', ''Film/ThorTheDarkWorld'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6''.
** Since late March, Cartoon Network has been showing a marathon of one of their shows at least once a week for this reason.
** Creator/{{CBS}} aired one movie from the Creator/{{Paramount}} library every Sunday evening during May 2020: ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', ''Film/ForrestGump'', ''Film/MissionImpossible'', ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'' and ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. They also went with a {{Retraux}} theme, reviving the old ''CBS Sunday Night Movies'' banner and using a [[https://youtu.be/VLusMBqfj_c?t=19 modified version]] of their late 1970s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5J7MeOu8ls projector]]" intro. After the postponement of the Tony Awards, a sing-along showing of ''Film/{{Grease}}'' was added on June 7 as a replacement. It was popular enough for a second batch of movies to be broadcast during October and early November: ''Film/OldSchool'', ''Film/{{Clueless}}'', ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'', ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'', and ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', with an additional movie (''Film/ComingToAmerica'') being shown during Thanksgiving weekend.
** As an additional commemoration of ChristmasInJuly, some TV stations including Nickelodeon and Hallmark Channel ran Christmas programming on July 25th[[note]]in the case of the latter, they spread out their Christmas in July programming throughout the entire month - this ''is'' Hallmark Channel, after all[[/note]]. In addition, some radio stations in the U.S., including Long Island-based WBLI and Phoenix-based KEZ, aired Christmas music the same day.
* When the second ''[[Series/SesameStreet The [=ABCs=] of COVID-19: A Sesame Street Town Hall]]'' special aired on CNN on June 13, 2020, fellow Time Warner channels Creator/CartoonNetwork and Creator/{{Boomerang}} ran marathons of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' and ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' on the day of the special to counterprogram it.
* During the 2004 Summer Olympics on NBC, Creator/{{Fox}} aired marathons of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' not only to counterprogram it, but also to promote the series' then upcoming return in 2005.
* On September 20, 2020, Nick Jr. ran a 2-hour ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'' marathon against the Primetime Emmys. They would later do the same thing against the 2021 Academy Awards, but for the whole duration of said ceremony.
* On January 8, 2021, Nickelodeon ran marathons of ''WesternAnimation/SantiagoOfTheSeas'' and ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' against Cartoon Network's marathon for the [[MilestoneCelebration 300th episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''.
* Every Friday, the Creator/NickJr. block on Nickelodeon runs a marathon of ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' to compete with rival Disney Junior's Friday premiere block. Occasionally, they'll also run new episodes of their programming on this day.
* Creator/{{NBC}} came up with an interesting subversion in TheNineties. They were naturally getting routed on Monday nights in autumn and early winter going up against ''Series/MondayNightFootball'', but at some point they examined the ratings and saw that, as you might expect, ''MNF'' had very poor numbers among young women. Since they already had their ''NBC Monday Night at the Movies'' MadeForTVMovie package going up against ''MNF'', they elected to focus on female-driven movies, with the idea that they weren't going to beat football, but would draw well with a desirable demographic group for advertisers. So mid-90s ''Monday Night at the Movies'' presentations tended to be stories about young women in jeopardy, starring well-known faces from hit TV shows (with the ladies of ''Series/BeverlyHills90210'' as frequent stars). And it worked. The RippedFromTheHeadlines ''Film/AFriendToDieFor'' was the highest-rated TV movie of the 1994-95 season, and other movies like ''Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?'' fell into CultClassic territory. Eventually, Creator/{{Lifetime}} picked up these movies for reruns, and the LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek genre kicked into high gear.
* In November 2016, Nick Jr. aired a block of new episodes of ''WesternAnimation/DoraAndFriendsIntoTheCity'' against the premiere of ''WesternAnimation/ElenaAndTheSecretOfAvalor''.
* On November 26, 2021, Cartoon Network premiered ''Film/AChristmasStory'', ''WesternAnimation/TheYearWithoutASantaClaus'', and a 2-hour ''Teen Titans Go!'' marathon to compete with the premiere of ''A Loud House Christmas'', a live-action TV movie for ''The Loud House''.
** Disney Channel competed with those two by airing ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'', followed by new episodes of ''Series/SydneyToTheMax'' and ''Series/GabbyDuranAndTheUnsittables''.
* NYC CW affiliate PIX 11 has often competed with the broadcast of the UsefulNotes/MacysThanksgivingDayParade by showing ''March of the Wooden Soldiers'', a colorized edit of Creator/LaurelAndHardy's ''Film/BabesInToyland1934''. (The film has also aired on Christmas Day.)
* When the Tohoku earthquake occured in Japan in 2011, some networks offered alternative programming to comfort viewers during the quake:
** Beginning on March 13th, TV Tokyo ran their children's programming as usual.
** On March 14th, NHK E-Tele resumed showing their children's programming line-up, a decision of which was praised by many viewers on social media.
** Tokyo FM added two children's songs to their lineup to comfort children who couldn't watch their shows during the week of the quake due to them being pre-empted by earthquake coverage: [[Literature/{{Anpanman}} "Anpanman's March"]] and [[Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure "Alright! Heartcatch Pretty Cure"]].
** Cable channel Creator/KidsStation, which is normally available only through a subscription, ran several of their programs for free for a limited period of time.
** Overseas, channels such as NHK World Premium and TV Japan, which are normally subscription-based, provided coverage of the earthquake for free.
* On Presidents' Day 2022, two channels competed with the premiere of the final episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' on Creator/PBSKids:
** Cartoon Network showed an all-afternoon marathon of ''Teen Titans Go!'' to premiere a new episode.
** Nick Jr. showed an all-afternoon marathon of ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol''.
* On Saint Patrick's Day 2022, Cartoon Network competed with Nickelodeon's annual Patrick Star-centric marathon of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' with a marathon of Beast Boy episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''.
* The Asian feed of Creator/{{FOX}} premiered ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee" against the opening ceremony of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
* On May 14, 2022, when the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'' premiered on Disney Channel, at least two other channels counterprogrammed it with marathons of their shows:
** Nickelodeon showed an all-day marathon of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', followed by an airing of ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2''.
** Cartoon Network showed an all-day ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' marathon, followed by the premiere of the miniseries ''Aquaman: King Of Atlantis'' and the new ''Teen Titans Go!'' episode "Finding Aquaman".
* Longtime Creator/{{CBS}} daytime drama ''Series/AsTheWorldTurns'' was - for 20 years - the top-rated SoapOpera and was so dominant in the ratings being such that Creator/{{ABC}} and Creator/{{NBC}} struggled to find a competing series and for several years during that streak would turn the 1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern time slot to the affiliates to air what they wanted.[[note]]most famously; ATWT was the only network program airing on November 22, 1963 when word first came in that UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy [[BreakingNewsInterruption had been shot]][[/note]]
* When Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July 2022, Japanese networks such as Creator/TVTokyo, Creator/TVAsahi and Creator/FujiTV took a break from endless news coverage to show their regularly-scheduled children's shows to comfort children who would otherwise be upset by the news.
* On September 3, 2022, Creator/NickJr ran an all-day marathon of ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' against the ''Top 10 Tiger Tales'' marathon of ''WesternAnimation/DanielTigersNeighborhood'' on the Creator/PBSKids channel.
* Infamously, Channel 5 ran several family-oriented movies, including ''WesternAnimation/TheEmojiMovie'', against Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, so that kids would have an alternative entertainment option. This was likely in response to complaints about programming that memorialized the queen pre-empting their children's programming block ''Milkshake!''.
* Both Nick and CN attempted to counter-program the season three premiere of ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' on October 15, 2022:
** An approximately 10-hour marathon of ''Teen Titans Go!'' was aired. However, during the actual timeslot of ''The Owl House'', [adult swim] just aired their regularly scheduled ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' reruns.
** Nick aired their "Mega Movie Madness" block, scheduling ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020'' at the same time as ''The Owl House''.
* An unexpected aversion was that the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardsCeremonies and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Basketball}} NCAA men's basketball championship game]] were scheduled on the same night for three years (1976, 1977 and 1982 specifically), though their timings were staggered (the NCAA game started at 8:00 P.M. Eastern, while the Oscars started at 10:00 P.M.) so they weren't competing head-to-head (as long as the NCAA game didn't run long or go into overtime). The NCAA final wasn't quite the major event it is now (the 1979 final pitting Michigan State and Magic Johnson versus Indiana State and Larry Bird was the first one to attract huge hype), but it was still odd to put it on the same night as the Oscars, which was generally the most-watched TV show in that era. During the 1976 Oscars, Creator/ElliottGould even joked about it as a presenter with the announcement "and the winners are...Indiana, 86-68." Additionally, both events were also originally scheduled on March 30, 1981, only for the Oscars to be pushed to the next day after [[BreakingNewsInterruption the announcement]] that President UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan[[note]]who as a former actor had taped a message to be played during the ceremonies, as this was the first Academy Awards after Reagan became President[[/note]] had been shot in an assassination attempt, while the basketball championship game was played only after word was received that Reagan was out of surgery and not in danger of losing his life.
* When the ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'' [[MilestoneCelebration 10th anniversary]] special "All Paws On Deck!" premiered on April 24, 2023, several children's networks aired special programming to compete with it:
** Disney Channel aired ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''.
** Cartoon Network aired a ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' marathon to celebrate its' own 10th anniversary.
** Universal Kids aired a five-hour marathon of ''WebAnimation/{{Cocomelon}}''.
* Due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the Fall 2023 season on broadcast television was loaded with programming that, if not unscripted, was either this (''Series/{{Yellowstone}}'', ''Series/AbbottElementary'') or outsourced from other countries (''Series/{{Transplant}}'', any of the CBC programming airing on The CW).
** It was also for this reason that ''Series/TheMaskedSinger'' began fast-tracking production on its 11th season mere weeks after wrapping the 10th, and before the latter season even started airing. This caused a bit of conflict for judge Nicole Scherzinger, who at the time of the 11th season's production was in London starring in a new West End production of ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''; Music/RitaOra was later announced to fill in for her.
** ''Series/DancingWithTheStars'' was made a Creator/DisneyPlus original the previous year, but when the WGA strike began it was rearranged to air live on both Disney+ and ABC to fill airtime for the latter network. In an almost subversion, it was nearly delayed after contestant Matt Walsh paused his involvement - with less than a week to air - until agreements were made with AMPTP. Four days later, the strike officially ended and he returned to competition... [[ShaggyDogStory only to be eliminated in the first episode]].
* Creator/TheWeatherChannel counter-programmed the highly contentious 2016 presidential election by instead airing nature scenes and calming music, with the occasional break for commercials and local forecasts. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjR2VtwxP3c You can watch the entire thing in its five and a half hour glory here.]]
* The Creator/IrwinAllen MadeForTVMovie ''The Night The Bridge Fell Down'' was an example of this trope ''twice'' in UsefulNotes/TheEighties, first in Britain, when Creator/TheBBC, which ran it opposite the 1982 UK TV[[note]]This was also the world network television[[/note]] premiere of ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' on Creator/{{ITV}}). Then in 1983, when NBC aired it[[note]]this was actually its first airing on American TV, thanks to it spending a while (it was shot in 1979) on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment.[[/note]] against [[Recap/MashS11E16GoodbyeFarewellAndAmen the final episode of]] ''Series/{{MASH}}''
* ''Star Wars Chapter IV: Film/ANewHope'' itself played this role for Creator/{{CBS}} on the night that ''Series/{{Lace}}'' premiered on [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]].
* On the week of February 26, 2024, Nickelodeon aired new episodes of ''WesternAnimation/RubbleAndCrew'' against new episodes of ''Series/DonkeyHodie'' on PBS Kids.
* While most broadcast networks coverered the OJ Simpson trial, Creator/{{FOX}} just stuck to airing their regular programming, including their children's block Creator/FOXKids.
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