The Philadelphia Eagles won their first Super Bowl tonight, and their first NFL championship since 1960.
And that’s cause for much celebration in the city of Brotherly Love.
Several Philadelphia stations broke into network programming following the game. ABC-owned WPVI broke into ABC programming at 10 p.m., 18 minutes before the game was over. CBS-owned KYW broke in to NCIS at 10:18 p.m. just as the game clock wound down. ABC and CBS programming–reruns up against NBC’s airing of the Super Bowl–were ripe for preemption.
Fox-owned WTXF aired their 10 p.m. news as a special called Chase for a Championship. NBC-owned WCAU, which carried the game, remained with NBC programming throughout. But after the post-game festivities, while other stations continued local coverage through the 11 p.m. news, WCAU stuck with the NBC game plan airing a highly-anticipated episode of This Is Us.
NBC’s station in Boston also aired This Is Us at its regular time, not surprising considering the Patriots lost. Among other Boston stations, CBS-owned WBZ and Hearst-owned WCVB broke in to network programming at 10:18 p.m. to report the Patriots’ loss.