Although a local TV station's decision to pre-empt prime-time programming in light of the Steelers AFC victory Sunday was predictable -- I mentioned the possibility of such an occurrence to a friend Sunday morning, although I predicted the wrong station -- it was no less boneheaded.

In e-mails received by angry viewers Sunday night and Monday, all stated the same thing: We love the Steelers, we're glad they won, but what was WTAE thinking?

Channel 4 broke into ABC's prime-time programming at 10:20 p.m. during the drama series "Brothers & Sisters" for "breaking news" about the Steelers victory. Aside from the score, which could easily be given in an on-screen crawl, how can the outcome of a scheduled game be considered breaking news?

"What an abuse of the 'breaking news' headline," wrote Julie, 27, of Dormont. "Worse yet, they subjected anyone waiting for 'Brothers & Sisters' to come back on to interviews with a bunch of fans, who, shockingly, were all very happy."

Kathy of Upper St. Clair complained in a phone call that Channel 4 "just left us hanging, which I thought was very rude and disrespectful."

"Obviously those of us watching 'Brothers & Sisters' weren't interested in the Steelers or we would have been watching them," wrote Russell, 54, of Ben Avon.

"I was recording the show as I watched the game," wrote another viewer. "Many game fans did the same thing. If a person wasn't interested in the game and wanted to watch 'Brothers & Sisters,' they weren't interested in the game results."

I was out of town on Sunday, but when I got back and watched what my DVR recorded from 10-11 p.m., it certainly seemed like WTAE's interruption was pre-planned with little regard for how it would affect regular viewers of ABC prime time. The station had many reporters on location and used weekday anchors Wendy Bell and Andrew Stockey. The "special report" came complete with commercials for Steelers AFC victory merchandise. There was no announcement about when the station might air the pre-empted "Brothers & Sisters" episode.

"Did we really need to see drunk fans from Primanti's eating a sandwich?" asked Greg, 47, of Ross. "Are they really that self-promoting that they can't just run a crawl or wait until 11 p.m. to report it?"

No one at WTAE got the "Brothers & Sisters" rerun information to anyone at the Post-Gazette until late Monday (the show aired at 2:05 a.m. Wednesday), which would suggest no advance plan on Channel 4's part to show the program. WTAE general manager Rick Henry said that was not the case, noting that the station regularly reschedules pre-empted shows.

Henry said if the Steelers lost, there would have been no pre-emption. If they won, the station expected to pre-empt "B&S" altogether. On Sunday the game ran long and Channel 4 cut into the middle of "B&S." That being the case, why wasn't WTAE ready to go with a crawl announcing when "B&S" would air regardless of when Channel 4 broke into regular programming?

"We should have," he said. "I think we missed that."

Henry expressed sympathy for perturbed viewers but also defended the cut-in.

'Brothers & Sisters' is a terrific show, and I can understand among people who are not Steelers fans how they would be concerned with this show being interrupted. I am sympathetic. I am sorry for that," he said. "The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl. It is a huge local story that's important to most people as evidenced by people celebrating in all locations and by the newspaper coverage in your own newspaper the next morning."

But just because a Steelers win deserves coverage doesn't mean it necessitates a programming interruption with no notice of when viewers can see the show that's getting pre-empted. (Also, this shouldn't be framed as only an issue for non-Steelers fans; as several viewers suggested, it's possible to be a fan of both the team and "B&S" and be annoyed at Channel 4's fumble.)

"Do you have any concern at all for your regular series viewers?" wrote Richard of Monessen in an e-mail he sent to Channel 4 and shared with me. "This was a crass ratings ploy."

In overnight ratings, the first half of "Brothers & Sisters" was predictably crushed by the Steelers game (an 81 share for the Steelers made the game No. 1 in the time slot; a 4 share for "B&S" made it No. 2, but that doesn't take into account those trying to record "B&S" to watch later). Channel 4's special report didn't fare well against CBS's "The Mentalist" (10 share for WTAE, 35 share for KDKA).

Maybe WTAE assumed viewers would just watch the "Brothers & Sisters" episode online at ABC.com. But Channel's 4 decision-makers should know better: Given the graying demographics of the Pittsburgh market, online viewing was not a reasonable expectation for many viewers. Plans for an alternate broadcast time should have been announced up front.

So what are viewers to do? Calling WTAE and pitching a fit was a good first start. As I've suggested before, the only way to really send a message to a television station is to not watch its newscasts, especially if a viewer has a Nielsen box or diary. But that can have unintended consequences, too. Not watching has the potential to drive down ratings, making a station even more desperate and likely to make bad calls in the future.

The best solution would be for TV station executives to make and communicate responsible programming choices that serve the best interests of their viewers -- unfortunately, we can't always count on that happening.

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