Editing KPRC-TV (section)

=== Network preemptions ===
While KPRC-TV generally airs NBC's programming lineup in pattern, this has not always been the case. Despite NBC historically being less tolerant of preemptions than other networks, KPRC-TV has at times preempted programming particularly in late night and daytime hours. While NBC has become more tolerant of preemptions than in previous years, it prefers that its affiliates clear the entire schedule whenever possible.

Following its acquisition by Post-Newsweek, various programs have been preempted by KPRC-TV over the years in a pattern similar to that of its Detroit sister station, [[WDIV-TV]]. Most notorious of all, the station dropped ''[[Late Night with Conan O'Brien]]'' from 1994 to 1996, leaving Houston as the largest market in the country to not air the program, with reruns of various tabloid talk shows including the aforementioned ''Ricki Lake'' and ''Jenny Jones'', tabloid news programs such as ''Entertainment Tonight'' and ''Access Hollywood'', and even a repeat of KPRC-TV's 10 p.m. newscast often filling the void. While ''Late Night'' did return to KPRC-TV in 1996, the station continued to delay its broadcast as far back as 2:40&nbsp;a.m. (even truncating the broadcast of its overnight news program, ''[[NBC Nightside]]'', in the process).

This fact was not lost on O'Brien, who visited Houston (making impromptu stops at Houston's central bus terminal and the [[Astrodome]]) to watch an episode of his own show with Houstonians in a classic remote piece. KPRC-TV's mail servers were flooded with emails from O'Brien's fans in response. KPRC-TV responded by moving the show to 12:35&nbsp;a.m. in 1998, and finally to its network-recommended (for the [[Central Time Zone]]) 11:35&nbsp;p.m. slot in 2005, where ''[[Late Night with Seth Meyers|Late Night]]'', now hosted by [[Seth Meyers]], continues to air. Channel 2 also delayed ''[[A Little Late with Lilly Singh]]'' (and its predecessor, ''[[Last Call with Carson Daly]]'') in late nights (recently at 1:35&nbsp;am) until August 13, 2021, when NBC gave that timeslot back to its affiliates; the station now airs a rebroadcast of the 10 p.m. news at 12:37&nbsp;a.m.

When ''[[Passions]]'' debuted on NBC in 1999, KPRC-TV (along with Detroit sister station WDIV-TV) were the only NBC affiliates that preempted the soap opera until 2002, even though ''Passions''<nowiki/>' predecessor ''[[Another World (TV series)|Another World]]'' was cleared by KPRC for most if not all of its entire run.<ref>[https://variety.com/1999/tv/news/nbc-passions-wane-1117503689/ NBC 'Passions' wane], ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', July 1, 1999.</ref> Around this time, KPRC, WDIV and [[Bonneville International]]–owned NBC affiliate [[KSL-TV]] in [[Salt Lake City]] declined to air ''[[Sunset Beach (TV series)|Sunset Beach]]''; respectively, ''Sunset Beach'' aired on KTXH (channel 20), [[WKBD]] and [[KUCW|KOOG]] (the former two were UPN affiliates and the latter was a [[The WB|WB]] affiliate). KNWS-TV (channel 51, now [[KYAZ]]), which had also picked up another preempted NBC daytime program, the talk show ''[[Leeza]]'' during the late 1990s, would pick up ''Passions'' in 2001 before the program moved to KPRC-TV in 2002 at 3:05&nbsp;am. Following the expansion of ''Today'' to three hours in 1999, ''Maury'' (which previously filled the 9 a.m. hour) aired in place of ''Passions'' until KPRC-TV placed the latter program in its network-recommended 2 p.m. timeslot in August 2004 (with ''Maury'' moving to KHWB [channel 39, now KIAH] at the same time), but the issue became moot when the program was canceled in September 2007.

During the 2000s, KPRC-TV was also among a handful of NBC affiliates that did not air ''[[Poker After Dark]]'' during its entire run, and likewise did not carry the short-lived ''[[Face the Ace]]'' in August 2009 (along with WDIV and Milwaukee's [[WTMJ-TV]]), preempting both prime time airings with [[St. Jude Children's Research Hospital]] programs. As is the case with Detroit's WDIV, NBC's current overnight lineup (a rebroadcast of the [[Today with Hoda & Jenna|fourth hour]] of ''Today'' on weekdays; ''LXTV 1st Look'' and ''Open House NYC'' on weekends) also does not air in Houston.