Viewers Upset with WFMY For Replacing ‘Andy Griffith Show’ with News

By Kevin Eck 

For the first time in thirty years, viewers of WFMY won’t be able to watch “The Andy Griffith Show” at the usual time of 5:30 p.m. and they’re not happy about it.

The Greensboro, NC, CBS affiliate recently replaced the residents of Mayberry with a new investigative news show hosted by anchor Tanya Rivera called “2 Wants to Know” and moved Griffith to an hour block starting at 3:00 p.m. According to the station, the “Andy Griffith Show” has been on WFMY since it premiered on CBS in 1960 and has been at the 5:30 slot for almost three decades.

The station announced the change on its facebook page in March. Over two hundred viewers responded to the announcement.  Many of those comments were from viewers letting the station know they were unhappy with the switch, “We’ve seen how they value Andy Griffith viewers, now let’s show how much we value News2. NIP IT IN THE BUD starting now: watch ANYTHING at 5:30 but 2 Wants To Know, find another local station for your news and unlike this Facebook page (you can still access it regardless of like/unlike).”

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Another viewer wrote, “Mon – Fri Andy Griffith Show at 5:30 = TRIED AND TRUE Copycat show of Old P.M. Magazine = TIRED AND NOT NEW.” While another added, “I don’t watch News 2 any longer since they moved The Andy Griffith Show.”

WFMY Marketing Director David Reeve told TVSpy the station is “taking positive steps” to ease the transition for viewers, by offering DVDs of the full series as sweepstakes prizes to be given away during “2 Wants to Know” as well as showing the Mayberry gang for an hour block starting at 3:00 p.m.

At the tail end of a rant about the switch, one viewer summed up why they were angry, “Thank you WFMY for 20+ years of a nice evening tradition. Silly as it may seem to some, it was a nice break from reality after some rough work days. Hopefully the new “News” won’t work so great and they’ll be eating crow while the rest of us are having chicken with Aunt Bea and Opie.”

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