Program preemptions and deferrals
Historically, KSL-TV has been known to occasionally preempt or assign out-of-pattern scheduling to certain network programs, either to make room for other local or syndicated programs or because of internal concerns over subject matter that station management deems objectionable, typically due to conflicts with to longstanding LDS Church beliefs. (Many of these preempted programs have aired instead on KUCW (channel 30) or KMYU (channel 12) over the years.) Preemptions based on content objections have periodically led to inquiries over the sustainability of a religious institution owning a network-affiliated station as content standards and practices in broadcast television have relaxed in recent decades in a reflection of cultural change.[16]
As a CBS affiliate, in 1977, Match Game host Gene Rayburn mentioned that the often risque then-CBS daytime game show was not being aired in Salt Lake City.[17] In 1987, the station was among several affiliates that announced that it would not air the children's animated series Garbage Pail Kids ahead of its originally scheduled premiere amid criticism from parental organizations over concerns about the show's violent content and humor ridiculing the handicapped and the perceived likelihood of it merely being a program-length ad for the controversial namesake toys and trading cards.[18][19] (Amid the controversy, CBS elected not to air it in the U.S., though its distribution arm syndicated it in some international markets.) In the years leading to its switch to NBC, KSL also preempted the 1989–91 sitcom Doctor Doctor (partway into its third and final season in November 1990),[20] and three shorter-lived series—Dirty Dancing (in 1988),[21] prime time
As an NBC affiliate, KSL declined to air Saturday Night Live throughout its first 18 years with the network; despite this, between 1995 and 2013, the station carried all of the long-running sketch comedy's "best-of" compilations, actor tributes, documentary specials and Saturday evening repeats that NBC aired in prime time. Unlike most of the later preemptions, while potentially objectionable content in the series were somewhat an issue for the station (NBC rebuffed KSL management inquiries about delaying SNL to midnight), the decision was largely made to retain its popular local sports discussion and highlight program SportsBeat Saturday. SNL initially remained on KUTV under arrangement with CBS until January 1996, before moving to then-WB affiliate KOOG (now KUCW).[27][28] In June 2013, KSL announced that it would start airing SNL in its regular timeslot beginning that fall, after revealing that viewership for SportsBeat had declined in recent years (and was also being beaten by the similar KUTV program Talkin' Sports in its slot); the Utah Utes playing more later evening games against West Coast opponents following its 2011 shift to the Pac-12 Conference from the Mountain West Conference (which played most of its football games in the afternoon) had also made it difficult for SportsBeat to analyze, carry, and package highlights of games that were often still in progress as it aired.[29] KSL-TV also did not air the 1997–99 NBC daytime soap opera Sunset Beach; the soap was seen locally on KOOG instead.
Content-wise, Channel 5 declined the short-lived 2003 sitcom Coupling because of its sexual humor and content, and preempted much of NBC's poker programming (such as Poker After Dark throughout its 2007–11 run) due to Church, ownership and LDS-member viewers' objections toward gambling. In September 2011, KSL-TV also preempted The Playboy Club (replacing it with the locally produced newsmagazine We Are Utah),[30] on grounds that the fledgling drama was "completely inconsistent" with the station's mission and branding, not wanting to be associated with the Playboy brand, even though the program did not specifically focus on the magazine nor include any nudity.[31] (KSL sponsors "Out in the Light", a campaign aimed at educating Utahns on mental, marital and sociological issues associated with viewing pornographic material.)[32] The program aired on KMYU in its Monday 9 p.m. time slot[33] until it was canceled by NBC after its third episode. KSL continued to air already-recorded episodes of We Are Utah in the 9 p.m. slot until the October 31, 2011, premiere of Rock Center with Brian Williams.[34]
On April 29, 2013, KSL-TV pulled Hannibal after four episodes, due to the drama's graphic violent content and material revolving around the Hannibal Lecter series of novels and films, an action compared by executive producer Bryan Fuller to how Russian newspaper Pravda structured its news coverage to fit the Soviet Communist Party's narrative.[37] KUCW aired the program on Saturday nights (initially following Saturday Night Live, before moving to 11 p.m. for the show's second season), while Hannibal's regular timeslot was occupied on Channel 5 by the weekly newsmagazine KSL In Depth.[38][39] Hannibal was cancelled after its last episode in August 2015, and the station cleared NBC's entire seasonal prime time schedule for the first time in the 2015–16 season.
On September 4, 2013, KSL announced it was moving Days of Our Lives out of daytime to 1:05 a.m., leading out of the network's late-night talk lineup, effective September 9; a local lifestyle program replaced Days in its former 2 p.m. slot (one of the alternate timeslots that NBC assigned for affiliates to air the soap opera). Other than the plausible outcome that locally originated programming in the daytime hour could allow KSL to attain much more ad revenue with a local program, no reason for the move was explicitly stated, with a common theory floated for the move being a storyline involving openly gay characters Will Horton and Sonny Kiriakis (who later became the first gay couple to be legally married in-canon on a network soap opera), citing historical opposition within the LDS Church to same-sex relationships. It also gave the show a steady DVR-friendly timeslot, where its preemption by breaking news in an overnight timeslot was much rarer than it would be in the afternoon, reducing overall station complaints. The latter reason is much more likely, as KSL continued to air Days in late night until the series moved exclusively to the Peacock streaming service (owned by NBC parent Comcast) in September 2022, even with the subsequent "killing off" and "resurrection" of Will in the series, and Sonny and Will's summer 2020 departure from the show.[40] The NBC News Now-produced afternoon newscast NBC News Daily—which replaced Days on NBC's schedule upon the soap's shift to Peacock—was not carried by KSL during the 2022–23 season, due to existing timeslot commitments to air Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray; it began clearing the program (airing at 1 p.m. weekdays) in September 2023, after the two syndicated talk shows ended their runs.[41]
Even with its tradition of screening possibly objectionable programs, some, such as The Book of Daniel (which was not shown by several other NBC affiliates, especially in Bible Belt states) and a paid political message criticizing the Iraq War (which featured Cindy Sheehan) have been aired by the station.[42][43]
News operation
KSL-TV presently broadcasts 30 1/2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 1/2 hours each weekday and 1 1/2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). Despite its roots in the Deseret News and its link to KSL radio, channel 5 was initially an also-ran in news. That changed in 1965, when the station poached sportscaster Paul James (better known as the voice of BYU football and basketball) and weatherman Bob Welti from KCPX-TV and teamed them with anchor Dick Nourse. Within a few months, channel 5 had rocketed into first place. It would be the dominant news station in Utah for most of the next 45 years, garnering some of the highest ratings in the country. Nourse, James and Welti would remain together until 1991, with Nourse staying on as top anchorman until 2007. In 2008, KSL-TV became the second television station in the Salt Lake City market (after KUTV, which converted in April of that year) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. For a long time, the station's newscasts were branded as Eyewitness News; the name was scrapped in 2009 in favor of KSL 5 News, and is now known simply as KSL News.
In November 2010, KUTV, long a distant runner-up, unseated KSL-TV in most timeslots, though channel 5 remained ahead at 10 p.m. However, in February 2011, KSL-TV lost the lead at 10 p.m. for the first time in almost half a century. In December 2011, KSL-TV restored its lead in every time slot in the Nielsen ratings except one—the early morning news slot on weekdays (in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic), where the station finished in third place.[46] Since then, however, KSL-TV has dropped back to a distant runner-up behind KUTV in most time slots. According to media observers, channel 5's ratings slumped after Mark Willes became president of Deseret Management Corporation, the for-profit arm of the LDS Church and Bonneville's parent company, and abandoned the station's longtime focus on hard news in favor of "values-based" reporting.
