Heidi moment

Heidi moment is a term referring to a network or television station cutting away from a sports program before its completion in favor of the next scheduled program, with the sporting event completed after the event was taken off the air. The term was based on the so-called Heidi Game incident involving NBC coverage of a game involving the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets on November 17, 1968.

Since the Heidi Game

• On September 26, 1981, the scheduled Major League Baseball Game of the Week between the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers had ended, and the NBC affiliate in Buffalo, New York, WGRZ (then WGR-TV), picked up the network's backup game, a Houston Astros-Los Angeles Dodgers contest in which Nolan Ryan was pitching his lone National League no-hitter. However, the coverage suddenly ended just as the ninth inning started, when the local station cut away to regular programming. WGR-TV felt duty-bound to present a naval training film--Life Aboard an Aircraft Carrier.

• An April 11, 2007 NHL first round Stanley Cup playoff Game 1, which had the Dallas Stars playing in Vancouver against the Canucks, went into quadruple overtime. The game, which started at 10:00 p.m. ET aired in the United States on Versus, and lasted 5 1/2 hours, but was interrupted on some cable systems in the fourth overtime period by an infomercial, preventing viewers from watching Vancouver score the winning goal with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth overtime, and win, 5–4. It is somewhat common for some cable systems to sell their own infomercial time on networks during non-programming overnight hours. After hearing complaints from viewers, Versus stated it would review its policies to prevent this from happening again, and try to figure out what triggered the infomercial to air.
• One month later, on May 19, 2007 NHL Eastern Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs Game 5, which had the Ottawa Senators playing in Buffalo against the Buffalo Sabres, went into overtime. The game, which started at 2:00 p.m. ET aired in the United States on NBC. NBC pre-empted overtime coverage outside of the Buffalo and Rochester areas though in order to show pre-race coverage of the 2007 Preakness Stakes. The remainder of the game was televised on Versus. However, some cable providers do not carry Versus; thus, some viewers were unable to see the game's end which resulted in an Ottawa victory and their first ever trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. NBC also did not warn much about the transition, which had a two-minute delay due to a foul-up at Versus’ master control in Denver. The deciding goal of the hockey playoff game ended up being scored an hour before the actual Preakness race was run. However, the first half-hour of horse racing preshow coverage earned a 3.8 rating, whereas the last half-hour of hockey, which immediately preceded it, had just a 1.5.
• An August 18, 2007, Canadian Football League game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Edmonton Eskimos was delayed for 55 minutes with Edmonton leading 32–27 due to thunderstorms at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. The CBC subsequently switched to a film, The Good Thief, starring Nick Nolte. By the time the game resumed, senior managers had turned off their cell phones for the evening and were unreachable, and an employee in the CBC programming department subsequently took control of the situation and refused to switch the network back to the game, except in Saskatchewan. The Roughriders subsequently scored 12 points and won the game 39–32. A senior manager of CBC Sports later criticized their network's failure to show the entire game live from coast to coast, and the network eventually broadcast the game on tape delay the following evening. However, the CBC has refused to discipline (or even name) the employee responsible.
• Just 13 days after the LifeLock 400 on October 13, 2007, KTKA-TV in Topeka, Kansas left ESPN on ABC's coverage of the NASCAR Bank of America 500 at 10 pm Central Time (11 p.m. ET) to carry the local newscast and did not return for the final six laps once the race resumed after a red-flag delay that had started at the time of the newscast.
• On April 12, 2008, Fox cut away from a New York Yankees / Boston Red Sox game with two outs in the top of the 9th inning to broadcast the beginning of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 NASCAR race. Fox was required by their contract with NASCAR to show the race, beginning at 8:55 PM Eastern, in its entirety. The final out of the Yankees/Red Sox game was moved to FX, a Fox-owned cable affiliate, leaving those without cable unable to see the final out of the game, which Boston would hold on to win. The game, which started at 4 PM Eastern, was delayed by rain for two hours, and would not have coincided with the 8:55 PM race start under normal circumstances. To protect against future instances of this, Fox moved any Saturday baseball coverage that would take place on the same day as a prime-time NASCAR race to 1:00 PM Eastern the following year.
• During a Los Angeles Angels / Oakland Athletics game on June 8, 2008, KCOP-TV in Los Angeles abruptly left the game before the A's Mark Ellis hit a walk-off grand slam in the 12th inning. At 5 pm, before that final pitch, KCOP left the game with a test pattern, its station logo, then a commercial, and its next program, the movie Smilla's Sense of Snow. The cutoff was due in part to an error by the game's transmitters, Vyvx and AT&T.
• On May 18, 2010, Versus left the coverage of Stage 3 of the 2010 Tour of California with only two kilometers to go, for a pregame show for Versus' hockey game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens. Scheduling conflicts and contractual obligations was what led to the cutaway. In response to Versus' cutoff, Lance Armstrong, who did not participate in the Tour of California, tweeted: "Who's the dumbass @versustv that cut off @AmgenTourofCali coverage w/ a mile to go for pregame hockey?? #pathetic".
• On September 13, 2010, CBS's coverage of the US Open was in overtime, due to frequent rain delays. At 8 pm ET, the network passed its coverage to ESPN2, which covered the event using CBS's graphics and logo, while CBS carried on with its normal prime-time schedule, beginning with a repeat of Two and a Half Men. Some CBS affiliates, sensing the continual rain delays, left the match to rejoin its local programming.

References

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