The Super Bowl, being among the most watched sports television events in the United States, became a notable target of counterprogramming during the 1990s due to its previous halftime shows; which critics felt were dated and not representative of modern pop culture.
[3] The success of the special alarmed the National Football League, who took steps to raise interest and viewership of the halftime show by inviting major pop musicians to perform, beginning with Michael Jackson at Super Bowl XXVII.
[9][10] Furthermore, the structure of the rotation under the NFL's next round of television contracts (which expands it to all four major networks) deliberately gave NBC the Super Bowl games in subsequent Winter Olympic (2026, 2030, and 2034).
[13] The 2008 Auto Club 500 was plagued by rain delays and unintentionally aired against a portion of the 80th Academy Awards; its start time was pushed back to around 3:00 p.m. PT (6:00 p.m.
[16][17] For a number of years, the championship game of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament aired on the day of the Academy Awards ceremony, leading into primetime.
During the 48th Academy Awards in 1976, presenter Elliott Gould acknowledged the game during the ceremony after hearing it on a radio backstage, interjecting his co-presenter Isabelle Adjani by jokingly announcing that the winner for Best Film Editing was "Indiana, 86–68".
Aided by WCW's popular New World Order (nWo) stable featuring Hulk Hogan, Nitro regularly beat Raw in viewership for 84 consecutive weeks.
By April 1998, bolstered by the popularity of performers such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, and his in-universe feuds with WWF owner Vince McMahon, Raw began to overtake Nitro in viewership for the first time since 1996.
[22][21][23] As the show only aired live on occasion at the time, WCW commentators occasionally discussed Raw spoilers on-air as a ploy to keep viewers from tuning away.
The Nitro main event (featuring Hulk Hogan defeating Kevin Nash for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship) was also marred by its unusual build-up and controversial finish—dubbed the "Fingerpoke of Doom".
ET immediately after the two-hour SmackDown; Rampage was scheduled for a live episode with matches featuring Chris Jericho, CM Punk, and Junior dos Santos among others.
WWE announced that SmackDown would be extended with an extra, commercial-free half hour at 10:00 p.m, featuring a match between Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks—countering the first half-hour of Rampage.
NXT scheduled matches between Ilja Dragunov and Dominik Mysterio for the NXT Championship (with guest referee LA Knight), Carmelo Hayes and Bron Breakker (with John Cena and Paul Heyman), and between Asuka and Roxanne Perez, appearances by former AEW performers Cody Rhodes and Lexis King, and surprise appearances by Jade Cargill, Rhea Ripley, and The Undertaker.
[43] On October 21, 2024, WWE announced that it would air a special Wednesday-night episode of NXT—now on The CW—on November 6, 2024, from Philadelphia's 2300 Arena—a historic wrestling venue that served as the home arena for ECW.
[44] When Seattle's KCPQ signed back on on November 4, 1980, it aired the film The Deer Hunter to counter the major networks' coverage of the 1980 presidential election.
After ratings fell by 1 million viewers for 2012, CBS ended its national broadcasts of the event in 2013; the concert was still aired in full, as before, by its Boston station WBZ-TV.
[50] During the 2018 Winter Olympics, which were broadcast by NBC, other networks generally placed their main lineups of scripted programming on hiatus, barring The CW for selected series.
[54] ABC had planned a summer-themed follow-up to The Bachelor Winter Games to air in August 2020 against the 2020 Summer Olympics, but production was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
opposite the final episode of One Foot in the Grave on BBC One drew accusations of counterprogramming; the Independent Television Commission (ITC), after investigating the matter, exonerated ITV of any wrongdoing.
[61] Between 2008 and 2014, STV aired replacement counter-programming during ITV's live FA Cup and England men's football games, thus providing an alternative offering opposite the fixtures.