History ScrewedByTheNetwork / PBS

* Reruns of the first four seasons of Between the Lions got dropped by most PBS stations in 2009 for unknown reasons.

** During those last few years, New York City-based WNET (the show's then-new originating station) aired the show at 6:30AM starting in 2006 in order to make room for the ''Mrs. Laurie and Hooper'' block, staying there until it was pulled from the schedule. In the last few months they had the rights, the show aired on Kids Thirteen, their digital subchannel, once a day at 3:30AM.

* Owing to ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' being a LongRunner, it has become very, very rare to see episodes from the first eight seasons in reruns on PBS affiliates. Beginning in Summer 2014, many PBS stations began airing a double run of ''Arthur'', the second run mostly consisting of earlier episodes, Seasons 2-4 in-particular. Some PBS stations air ''Arthur'' in an early morning slot to devote time to newer shows. For instance, WNET airs it at 6:30AM, the slot that, a decade prior, was used to burn off the last few seasons of ''Series/BarneyAndFriends''.

* Reruns of the first four seasons of Between the Lions got dropped by most PBS affiliates in 2009 for unknown reasons.

* ''WesternAnimation/SagwaTheChineseSiameseCat'' was launched in a blaze of publicity with high ratings, only for those ratings to drop when the 9/11 attacks happened thanks to PBS not being able to compete with bucket-tons of news coverage. The show was quietly canceled in 2002. Some [=PBS=] stations still showed the series as late as February 2009, with PBS Kids Sprout unceremoniously removing it from the schedule that March. However, [=CineGroupe=] has stated through WordOfGod that they're looking into rebooting the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'' went on a three-year-long hiatus due to the 9/11 attacks, which also caused the second season's last few episodes to be withheld until 2002. It also was removed and stopped being Adored by the Network unceremoniously from all PBS affiliates and PBS Kids Sprout's schedules after August 31st, 2010, when they lost the rights to the show.

* The stand-alone version of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' was treated terribly by PBS. For starters, a lot of PBS stations (with the exception of Rhode Island PBS, who aired the model episodes as late as 2012) outright refused to show the model episodes once the switch to CGI happened for the series [[note]] PBS gave the model era better treatment in the 90's, but as part of ''Series/ShiningTimeStation'' and its short-lived spinoff ''Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales''.[[/note]] and only showed the widely-reviled Sharon Miller CGI episodes (seasons 1-7 were staples on PBS Kids Sprout before they, too, switched to showing nothing but the Miller episodes). They rarely, if ever, advertised new episodes unless a movie was premiering. Some stations, such as WTVI PBS Charlotte, either only aired the show on weekends at awkward time slots, or never even aired it at all. And then there's the ExecutiveMeddling: in order to fit PBS' uptight standards,[=HiT=] revamped the show from season 8 to season 16 to make it more educational. Even after the show improved with the arrival of Andrew Brenner in season 17, PBS would show episodes from the AudienceAlienatingEra more often than the newer ones. In December 2017, PBS announced that their broadcast rights to ''Thomas'' had expired and would not be renewed, resulting in a lot of soccer moms complaining to the network and Mattel on Facebook. The show then moved to Creator/NickJr, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork/{{Nickelodeon}} which gave it even worse treatment]] and then was made a Creator/{{Netflix}} original series in the United States.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "Flea To Be You and Me/Kiss and Tell" had a difficult premiere date of Christmas Day of 2003. Because of this, many PBS stations didn't air the episode, airing "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" or other holiday programming instead. Airing any new episode of a show on Christmas morning means it's pretty much dead in the water ratings-wise, since most people are busy opening presents and spending time with their families instead of watching TV. No new episode of PBS Kids a show has ever aired on Christmas since this.

* ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}'' was once a network favorite for PBS, but eventually fell prey to this. By 2001, the show had ended in its native United Kingdom; this meant that there was very little new material to be used for the show's American run, despite said run not ending until 2005. In 2008, most stations lost the rights to the show.

** Averted for the last four episodes of ''Arthur'', which aired on many stations the week of February 21, 2022 at 3:30PM, pre-empting ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts''.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "Flea To Be You and Me/Kiss and Tell" originally aired on Christmas Day of 2003. Because of this, many PBS stations didn't air the episode, airing "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" instead. Airing any new episode of a show on Christmas means it's pretty much dead in the water ratings-wise, since most people are busy opening presents and spending time with their families instead of watching TV. No new episode of the show ever aired on Christmas again for the remainder of the series' run.

* The ''WesternAnimation/Arthur'' episode "Flea To Be You and Me/Kiss and Tell" originally aired on Christmas Day of 2003. Because of this, many PBS stations didn't air the episode, airing "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" instead. Airing any new episode of a show on Christmas means it's pretty much dead in the water ratings-wise, since most people are busy opening presents and spending time with their families instead of watching TV. No new episode of the show ever aired on Christmas again for the remainder of the series' run.

* Reruns of the first four seasons of ''Series/BetweenTheLions'' got dropped by most PBS affiliates in 2009 for unknown reasons.

* ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'' went on a three-year-long hiatus due to the 9/11 attacks, which also caused the second season's last few episodes to be withheld until 2002. It also was removed unceremoniously from all PBS affiliates and PBS Kids Sprout's schedules after August 31st, 2010, when they lost the rights to the show.

* A combination of the [[HasTwoMommies controversy surrounding "Sugartime!"]] and poor ratings led to ''WesternAnimation/PostcardsFromBuster'' being pulled from most PBS stations in the fall of 2007 and being replaced by ''WesternAnimation/FetchWithRuffRuffman'', leading to only a handful of PBS stations airing the final five episodes.

* ''Series/TotsTV'' got this treatment from most PBS affiliates. Most of them only aired the show once a week on Sunday, instead using the weekday slot that was planned for the show to bring in the then-new ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', which premiered the same year.

* ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'', despite no problems ratings-wise, got canceled by PBS in 2009. Why? It ended up in the commercial hands of Creator/HitEntertainment, which has shown more interest in merchandising every cent out of their properties than the quality of the series that gave them the merchandise in the first place. Sister property ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', after being changed from models to CGI animation, was raking in more money than ''Barney'' for the first time since the peak of its popularity in the '90s, so they canned ''Barney'' to focus more on their really useful engine, and thus marked the end of one of PBS Kids' LongRunners. A handful of PBS stations did keep rerunning the show until PBS let their broadcasting rights lapse in November 2015. In 2018, it was acquired by Creator/UniversalKids (formerly PBS Kids Sprout, then simply Sprout).
** During those last few years, New York City-based WNET (the show's new originating station) aired the show at 6:30AM starting in 2006 in order to make room for the ''Mrs. Laurie and Hooper'' block, staying there until it was pulled from the schedule. In the last few months they had the rights, the show aired on Kids Thirteen, their digital subchannel, once a day at 3:30AM.

* The stand-alone version of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'' was treated terribly by PBS. For starters, a lot of PBS stations (with the exception of Rhode Island PBS, who aired the model episodes as late as 2012) outright refused to show the model episodes once the switch to CGI happened for the series [[note]] PBS gave the model era better treatment in the 90's, but as part of ''Series/ShiningTimeStation'' and its short-lived spinoff ''Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales''.[[/note]] and only showed the widely-reviled Sharon Miller CGI episodes (seasons 1-7 were staples on PBS Kids Sprout before they, too, switched to showing nothing but the Miller episodes). They rarely, if ever, advertised new episodes unless a movie was premiering. Some stations, such as WTVI PBS Charlotte, either only aired the show on weekends at awkward time slots, or never even aired it at all. And then there's the ExecutiveMeddling: in order to fit PBS' uptight standards, Creator/HitEntertainment revamped the show from season 8 to season 16 to make it more educational. Even after the show improved with the arrival of Andrew Brenner in season 17, PBS would show episodes from the AudienceAlienatingEra more often than the newer ones. In December 2017, PBS announced that their broadcast rights to ''Thomas'' had expired and would not be renewed, resulting in a lot of soccer moms complaining to the network and Mattel on Facebook. The show then moved to Creator/NickJr, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork/{{Nickelodeon}} which gave it even worse treatment]] and then was made a Creator/{{Netflix}} original series in the United States.