Something like this has to happen: Station to Rerun ‘Average Joe’ Segment
ST. LOUIS (AP) – After Missouri’s own Dick Gephardt finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses, the local NBC affiliate cut away from network programming to broadcast his speech. That didn’t sit so well with the Average Joe.
Viewers jammed KSDK-TV’s switchboard and Web site in the hours after the decision Monday to pull away from the final segment of “Average Joe: Hawaii.”
Gephardt’s concession speech ran over the final nine minutes of the program and beyond. He officially pulled out of the race for the Democratic nomination Tuesday.
NBC granted KSDK permission to rebroadcast the final segment. It was scheduled to air at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.
A statement on the station’s Web site said KSDK understands “the frustration after investing time in a television program and not being able to see how the show ends.”
But for a station whose slogan is, “Where the news comes first,” there really wasn’t any choice, news director Mike Shipley said.
“Unfortunately, we can’t orchestrate when breaking news happens,” Shipley said. “We’d do the same exact thing again. The only thing I wish we could change was the timing.”
It’s bad enough people are actually watching this show, but to invest the time and energy to complain about missing nine minutes – Jeez!