Tim from Springfield, IL

#2 happened in the Peoria-Bloomington DMA, whose ABC affiliate has been on a 25.2 subchannel of Gray-owned heritage NBC station WEEK-25.1 for nearly the past decade (when WHOI-19 lost the affiliation to 25.2 after 63 years). Both the NBC NBA game on 25.1 and the ABC Oscar telecast on 25.2 were bumped partially for weather coverage last night--and many viewers were unhappy, to say it nicely. This was the same TV station that had the developing Washington F4 tornado on 11/17/2013 literally overhead (while they were on the air) as it was moving toward that city after touching down in Pekin. Here's a FB post from last night's on-duty meteorologist (Brian Walder) about the situation: https://www.facebook.com/BrianWalder25News/posts/pfbid02pPgHAhVPduR39JCQT53nms1mQMt7ztLSv2QzMN8LB8k1D31sEycS1y5EXGX2ZFz9l Also, I didn't watch TV last night but I have seen FB reports that at least the early part of the Oscars was also bumped by my DMA's ABC stations (WICS-20.1 Springfield, also relayed on WICD-15.1 Champaign). Maybe during the warnings occurred during the red carpet show. But later all wall-to-wall weather coverage until at least the storms entered Indiana was shifted only to their "Fox Illinois" sister stations (WRSP-55.1 Springfield/WCCU-27.1 Urbana). And our market has had an entire awards show before basically wiped out due to wall-to-wall weather before: June 14, 2015's Tony Awards broadcast on CBS was bumped entirely on our local affiliate (WCIA-3.1 Champaign/WCIX-49.2 Springfield) due to wall-to-wall weather threatening at least the Champaign area. Springfield viewers were not happy, to put it lightly.

I haven't check to see if it's been shared here yet, but on the warm side of this system there is already an SPC Day 3 ENH risk in this sub for SW IN up to Indy, and SE IL, with slight for much of IL up to lower MI. Storm Prediction Center Mar 13, 2026 1930 UTC Day 3 Severe Thunderstorm Outlook I am actually going to go on a limb and predict that these two TV weather-related coverage events occur Sunday night: 1. At least one CBS affiliate in the Slight or Enhanced area bumps the entire CBS NCAA Men's Selection Show for wall-to-wall weather; and 2. At least one ABC affiliate in the risk area bumps part or even all of the Oscars Sunday night for wall-to-wall weather and warnings coverage.