There are some stations that we all can get on our cable or satellite television service.
These are stations like HBO, Discovery, and the Food Network.
These are national channels, meaning that you see the same programming on the station on matter where you live.
The time difference comes into play, of course, but the programming is for all viewers regardless of where they live or when they tune in.
Your local television stations, on the other hand (which are what you may watch the most of), offer you programming that you won't see the same on any other station anywhere else.
What your NBC carries is usually different from the NBC affiliate station in the next city.
Your local NBC, CBS, Fox or ABC affiliate will each have their own television schedule.
If you watch NBC at home, and then travel to NYC and turn on NBC, you are going to see different programming, or the same programming on at different times.
Each local affiliate of television stations will decide what they want to show, when they want to show it, and when it is time to play something else.
It depends on local demographics, local interest, and even their budget.
Not all television stations have the same budget.
There are many shows that run on what is called syndication.
These are shows like daytime talk shows.
Oprah, Ellen, and Rachel Ray are all purchased through syndication.
This is why you may see Ellen on ABC in one town but on NBC in another.
You may see Oprah on at four where you live on NBC, but she may run at nine AM on a different station when you go visit your in-laws in Buffalo.
Your local television stations may change programming or times according to what the others are doing.
They won't want to put Ellen on if you just saw it on another station.
They may not carry her show at all, or put it on hours later.
There are some things that are usually always the same on your local television stations, and those are the prime time shows like The Office, Big Brother, or American Idol?just as examples.
These usually play on all affiliates at the same time, though there are some exceptions.
You will also have the same nightly, national news on at 6:30, but the news from six to six thirty will be your local television stations broadcasts.
There are some game shows that play on most affiliates at the same time, but these are usually the ones on from seven PM and on.
The ones during the day are also syndicates and vary from station to station.
There may be little that you can do if something you love to watch disappears from your local television stations, but it could not hurt to contact your station to tell them that you want something back.
It could be that enough people ask for it and it returns, or it may be running at a different time and you just didn't know when to watch.
It could also be that the show is no longer offered on syndication for local television stations, or the price went up and it is no longer feasible to run the show.
There are a variety of reasons why shows disappear.
Remember, if you can not see it locally any longer, you may just find it online.
Do a search and see.