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NBC Daytime Schedule 1980

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chris319:
Going back to 1980, is it connect to say that Card Sharks replaced 1/2 hour of the Letterman morning show when Letterman was cancelled, or is it correct to say that the Letterman half hour was replaced by Las Vegas Gambit?

Adam Nedeff:
Well...Neither. August 4 is the day that Dave was scaled back to 60 minutes. October 27 is the first day after he was cancelled altogether:

https://daytimetvarchive.com/grids/1980.html

chris319:
According to the chart, one hour of Letterman was replaced by L.V. Gambit and Blockbusters at 10:00 am on Monday, October 27. So it is not accurate to say Letterman was replaced by Card Sharks.

tvwxman:

--- Quote from: Adam Nedeff on August 06, 2025, 12:47:23 AM ---https://daytimetvarchive.com/grids/1980.html

--- End quote ---

Thanks for this link - that was a dive down a rabbit hole as I was reminiscing my youth and my knowlege of game show listing times !

steveleb:

--- Quote from: tvwxman on August 06, 2025, 08:06:18 AM ---
--- Quote from: Adam Nedeff on August 06, 2025, 12:47:23 AM ---https://daytimetvarchive.com/grids/1980.html

--- End quote ---

Thanks for this link - that was a dive down a rabbit hole as I was reminiscing my youth and my knowlege of game show listing times !

--- End quote ---

In seeing that laid out in such stark and consistent grid terms, it's clearer than ever why those that I knew who were at NBC at that point never quite fully recovered from the experience.  That's a dizzying number of moves even under ideal circumstances--certainly exacerbated by the fact it was a solid third in prime time and lost the Olympics that year to boot.  Oh, and this was also the dawn of the Jean Doumanian era at SNL.

I had almost completely forgotten about the launch of TEXAS in the midst of all of this--and if you think Letterman underwhelmed, you should have heard what the general managers of their Dallas and Houston stations said about an effort that not only couldn't hold a candle to the prime time hit it hoped to be confused with, it even was far weaker than the remaining cast in Bay City--and ultimately help accelerate the complete AW franchise demise.

Had Hill Street Blues and at least the breadcrumbs of something respectable not happened, it's my belief, based both on hindsight and the reflections of some I came to know personally, we might have seen an outright mutiny from NBC in short order.   Talk about desperation.

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