ABC Adds More ‘MNF’ Simulcasts; ‘What Would You Do?’ Moves; Pat Sajak’s ‘Celebrity Wheel of Fortune’ & ‘Press Your Luck’ Pushed To 2025
ABC has made changes to its Monday and Wednesday schedules. Monday will now be officially a Monday Night Football night as the network has added six more simulcasts for a total of 17 games in 2024 — 14 simulcast, including playoffs, and three exclusive. This replaces ABC’s previously announced Monday lineup of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck and What Would You Do?
Of the three, the game shows are being pushed to 2025, delaying Pat Sajak’s Wheel of Fortune farewell with his final celebrity edition, while What Would You Do? will move to Wednesdays starting next week, taking over the slot previously assigned to ABC News’ Scamanda, which will be held for midseason.
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If this all sounds confusing, here is the context behind the moves — with an ironic twist involving the CW.
ABC did not announce a Monday lineup at the upfronts, leading many to believe the night was being reserved for MNF just like the network did during the strike-impacted last fall when it simulcast 15 games with ESPN.
But then in late August, ABC announced that Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck and What Would You Do? would air Mondays starting October 7 due to carrying fewer MNF games. That prompted the CW to rejigger its schedule, which had been announced in May and featured game shows Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit on Monday that would’ve gone directly against ABC’s game show block. (They are now airing Thursday, with the final episodes of Superman & Lois tasked with battling football on Monday instead.)
There was another scheduling change when the October 2 Dancing With the Stars episode became displaced by the Vice Presidential debate. It moved to October 7, pre-empting the season premieres of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and Press Your Luck. The season premiere of What Would You Do? followed Dancing that night.
With Scamanda not slated to debut until October 16, a decision was made to put the only of the four unscripted series that had already premiered, What Would You Do?, in Scamanda‘s Wednesday 10 p.m. slot, with the other three getting on the bench until 2025.
Here is a list of ABC’s remaining MNF games:
o Bills at Jets (October 14, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast)
o Ravens at Buccaneers (October 21, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast)
o Giants at Steelers (October 28, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ABC, ESPN, ESPN+) *previously announced as an ABC simulcast
o Buccaneers at Chiefs (November 4, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast)
o Texans at Cowboys (November 18, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast)
o Ravens at Chargers (November 25, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast)
o Bengals at Cowboys (December 9, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ABC, ESPN, ESPN+) *previously announced as an ABC simulcast
o Bears at Vikings (December 16 ,2024 – 8:00 p.m. ABC exclusive) *previously announced as an ABC exclusive
o Saints at Packers (December 23, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast)
o Lions at 49ers (December 30, 2024 – 8:15 p.m. – ABC, ESPN, ESPN+) *previously announced as an ABC simulcast
o TBD at TBD (January 4, 2025 – 4:30 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast) *previously announced as an ABC simulcast
o TBD at TBD (January 4, 2025 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast) *previously announced as an ABC simulcast
o Super Wild Card Playoff (January 13, 2025 – 8:15 p.m. – ESPN, ABC simulcast) *previously announced as an ABC simulcast
o Divisional Round Playoff (January 18 or 19, 2025 TBD – ESPN, ABC simulcast) *previously announced as an ABC simulcast
Additionally, there are seven ESPN exclusive games and one ESPN+ exclusive game.
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