Random question about the original airing of DS9 and Voyager

[RookieBatman]

I was looking at airdates, and I noticed that from February 1995 to May 1996, Deep Space 9 and Voyager episodes debuted on the same day. I was wondering whether anyone could recall which show had an earlier timeslot, or would it just depend on the local syndication channel?

 

[Farscape One]

Probably local stations made the call.

Here in Miami, FL., I remember DS9 would air on CBS until partway through their 5th season, then it was moved to UPN on Wednesdays at 10 pm. VOYAGER went to that day, too, but aired at 9 pm. That would be about their midpoint of season 3.

From then on, it stayed that way until DS9 ended.

I do distinctly remember TNG was Mondays at 7 pm, with DS9 at 7 pm on Tuesdays before VOYAGER premiered.

DS9 only had 3 months by themselves representing STAR TREK on tv... the first 10 episodes of season 3.

I'm trying to remember if they aired the same night during the times you mentioned, because I used to record all episodes of all shows on my vcr during that time. (I had a LOT of tapes. Every episode made up to that point. I did so until ENTERPRISE ended... all 704 episodes. Obviously, when dvd box sets came out, it rendered my collection obsolete.)

I don't fully remember, but it may come to me at random.

 

[Replica Picard]

Probably local stations made the call.

Agreed, and to add a data point, for my local market, I don't remember the shows EVER airing on the same day.

 

[Sakonna]

Well, Voyager was the first Berman-era show with a consistent nationwide airdate, since it always aired on UPN. Since DS9 was always syndicated, I believe the date listed on Memory Alpha are just the earliest date it was available to air, but depending on the market, the actual airdate could be anywhere in that following week.

In my memory the syndication release date for TNG and DS9 were on Mondays -- it weirdly came up for me a lot in a practical way, since my family was all about road trips in an RV, so I was forever in random campgrounds somewhere in America and having to figure out when the local station aired Trek, and then hope I could adjust the antennae just so to get that channel to come in. And I seem to remember that most markets would air Trek on Sundays, because I remember thinking it was interesting that that was as far as you could get from the Monday release date and still be in the same week.

But I see a lot of what Memory Alpha lists are Sundays, so maybe my recollection is COMPLETELY wrong. Or maybe just half wrong, maybe my impression was most markets aired it on Saturdays, a week off from a Sunday drop?

 

[Lord Garth]

I watched DS9 on Saturday nights at 7:00. I watched VOY Wednesday nights at 9:00. In my area (Boston), DS9 was on first-run syndication on Channel 56 and VOY was on Channel 38 on UPN. But the interesting thing about Channel 38 was that oftentimes they would preempt Voyager for Hockey. So then they'd air the episode some other night. I don't remember which one.

 

[Kor]

Yeah, DS9 was syndicated, while Voyager was not. VOY was the flagship series on UPN and thus aired on Wednesday evening nationwide. DS9's broadcast day and time would vary depending on the local market.

Kor

 

[C.E. Evans]

In syndication, Trek was always at the mercy of the local station. In my area, TNG used to run fairly regularly at 10:00 pm CST every Saturday night on one station, but then another station later acquired DS9 and then began running that at the same time slot on Sunday nights. When that second station got VOY, it then began airing it on Saturday nights. So we were actually seeing new episodes of VOY before new episodes of DS9 for awhile (UPN did not have an actual home in my area, so we got VOY in first-run syndication instead).

That lasted for about a year and then things went screwy with UPN in my area, and VOY wound up disappearing from the airwaves for a few years before finally being picked up by a low-powered Christian TV station for its final couple of seasons. I can't remember exactly, but I think it ran VOY on Wednesdays during prime time hours.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Chicago area, I watched DS9 on Saturday afternoons on local WGN, syndicated alongside Xena, Hercules, Sinbad, maybe Robin Hood and some other shows I don't recall.

UPN (WPWR) always ran Voyager, and then Enterprise, at the prime time Wednesday spot.

 

[The Wormhole]

Where I lived, it was always DS9 first, then Voyager.

 

[Danny99]

I remember in central Ontario, Voyager was Wednesdays at 8PM and then I think it moved to Mondays at 8pm. DS9 was Tuesdays if I remember correctly.

 

[CommanderTrip]

I watched DS9 on Saturday nights at 7:00. I watched VOY Wednesday nights at 9:00. In my area (Boston), DS9 was on first-run syndication on Channel 56 and VOY was on Channel 38 on UPN. But the interesting thing about Channel 38 was that oftentimes they would preempt Voyager for Hockey. So then they'd air the episode some other night. I don't remember which one.

South of Boston here. Hated when Voyager was preempted for hockey.

I remember Voyager was on at 9:00p on wednesdays (new episodes) and around season 6 or 7 they started airing earlier repeats every night at 10:00p on UPN.

DS9 was on Fox at 2:00am daily and o. the weekends. Made it difficult to watch for sure (at least until the show came out on DVD)

TNG was usually on fox at about 10:00am, but I didnt start watching TNG until after it ended, so I never saw a new TNG episode (as in it premiered that week)