It wasn’t quite Heidi Part II, but plenty of Raiders fans missed out once again on a thrilling conclusion, when their ability to watch the overtime victory over Seattle came to an abrupt end.
Fifty-four years ago this month, NBC opted to stay true to its schedule, leaving a Jets-Raiders game at 7:00 p.m. ET for Heidi, a made-for-TV film. Today, RedZone pulled the plug on Raiders-Seahawks when it was the only game still being played.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, that’s the rule. RedZone isn’t Sunday Ticket. When only one game is still being played on RedZone, the RedZone broadcast ends, in deference to Fox or CBS.
So, basically, once there was only one game, RedZone basically would have become a co-broadcast of a game that CBS was televising.
The problem in this case was exacerbated by the fact that RedZone host Scott Hanson mistaken told the audience to watch the rest of the game on CBS. Hanson has tweeted that he thought the game was being televised nationally. But it was a regional broadcast with a small national footprint. For everyone who wasn’t otherwise getting the game on a local CBS affiliate, it was time for 60 Minutes, and not the minutes over 60 that the Raiders and Seahawks played.
It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it goes. Once one game remains on the air, the only way to see it is to be where it’s being broadcast, or to have Sunday Ticket.