With a number of posts to alt.tv.futurama and rec.arts.animation by people under the impression that everybody in the eastern half of the country didn't get to see "Roswell That Ends Well" because the Redskins - Cardinals football game ran long, here's the information for the rest of the football season.
First of all, each Sunday, either Fox or CBS gets to show two games. (I'll refer to the network that can show two as that week's "doubleheader network".) When Fox is the doubleheader network, pretty much every Fox station throughout the USA will show two games (the only ones who can't are the cities with NFL teams playing home games that are either blacked out or are on CBS), and the second game lasts until (at least) 7:30, so Fox simply doesn't schedule Futurama in the Eastern and Central time zones (and schedules a repeat in the Mountain and Pacific zones).
When CBS is the doubleheader network in a given Sunday, Fox may schedule a new episode (although whether it will on either December 30 or January 6 is another question). With a few exceptions (and those all being in cities with NFL teams), each Fox station can decide to show either a 1:00 (Eastern) game, in which case that station will show Futurama at 7:00 without any problem, or show a 4:05 game, in which case it is likely that the game will still be on at 7:00, in which case the station can do one of three things when the game ends:
- Show Futurama "already in progress" (assuming it's not 7:30 yet)
2. Show local programming until 7:30, and then show Futurama at
another time - for example, midnight, or the following Saturday
afternoon (if this happens where you live, don't expect the TV
listings to know, as the decision has to be made at the last
second - call the station and ask)3. "Screw it - it's only Futurama" (if that happens, I suggest you
contact Fox and tell them one of its stations didn't show one
of the Fox shows - or any of the Fox-sold commercials that went
with it)The "exceptions" that I mentioned are in cities with NFL teams:
1. If the team is playing an away game on Fox, ot a home game on
Fox that is not blacked out, the local Fox station will show
that game.2. If the team is playing an away game on CBS, or a home game on
CBS that is not blacked out, the local Fox station will almost
certainly not show a game at the same time (there would almost
certainly be a bigger audience at the other time). (If it is
a home game, Fox isn't allowed to.)3. If the team is playing a home game and it is blacked out,
whether it was supposed to be on CBS or Fox, then both networks
can only show one game; usually, but not always, the network
that would have shown the home team will show a game that starts
at the same time (if there are any), and the other network will
show a game at the other time.With that being said, here's how things look for the rest of the football season:
Dec. 16 - Fox doubleheader day, so no episode in the Eastern and Central time zones
Dec. 23 - not applicable as no episode airs at 7:00 (the two Christmas episodes will air at 9:00 and 9:30)
Dec. 30 - CBS doubleheader day (* indicates that it may change status if the local game is blacked out, but don't count on it)
Full episode: Atlanta, Charlotte*, Chicago, Dallas*, Detroit*, Green Bay*, Miami*, Minneapolis
In progress if sold out, full episode if blacked out: Philadelphia (this is because if the game is blacked out, there is no other Fox game at 4:05, so the Philadelphia station has to show a 1:00 game)
In Progress: Buffalo, Cincinnati*, Cleveland, Indianapolis,
Jacksonville*, Kansas City, Memphis*, New York,
Pittsburgh, St. Louis*Jan. 6 CBS doubleheader day
Full episode: Chicago*, Dallas, Detroit*, Green Bay, Jacksonville,
Kansas City, New Orleans*, New York, Philadelphia,
Tampa*, Washington*In progress if sold out, full episode if blacked out: St. Louis
In Progress: Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte*, Cincinnati, Indianapolis*, Memphis*, Miami*
Jan. 13 - playoffs begin Unless both AFC games are scheduled for west coast cities, which is possible only if one of Oakland, San Diego, or Seattle wins the AFC West division but has the worst record of the three division champions, and another of those three has the best record among the AFC non-champions) and San Francisco does not play a home game that weekend, forcing CBS to show the "late" game on Sunday, expect Fox to show a game on Sunday starting at 4:15 and ending no earlier than 7:30.
Jan. 20 It is impossible for both AFC games to be in west coast cities, as two of the three division champions are the home teams and all of the AFC's west coast teams are in the same division, so Fox will almost certainly show a 4:15 game.
Jan. 27 The decision will be made on January 20. Most likely, Fox will show the 4:15 game, unless there was a good chance that a west coast team would be hosting the AFC championship game (and San Francisco would not be hosting the NFC one), in which case that game (on CBS) would air at 4:00 (otherwise the AFC game would start at 9:30 AM local time).
Feb. 3 Fox has already announced that "Malcolm in the Middle" will be the only network programming on after the Super Bowl
Feb. 10 Fox will probably schedule some movie that night to capitalize on February Sweeps (especially as, if I remember correctly, the Super Bowl does not count in sweeps ratings - although in the past, it's always been on the day before February sweeps begins)
Feb. 17 Fox is airing the Daytona 500 that day, so of course it will rain, causing a delay until 7:30 PM. (Unfortunately, Daytona has lights, so there's no chance of it being declared too dark to race.)
Feb. 24 Two new episodes of "King of the Hill" were not shown in November and December because Fox football games run until 8:00 Eastern, so Fox will probably air them in a doubleheader this night beginning at 7:00.
Feb. 31 The entire season is scheduled to air on this night, so don't come complaining that certain episodes weren't aired.
Mar. 7 "We aired every Futurama episode on February 31, remember? Tell you what - we'll repeat every episode on, oh, say, June 31. How about that?" (Were you expecting me to say "Smarch 13"?)
Don't forget that cities whose Fox affiliates also show local teams' baseball games may pre-empt Futurama because they have to show baseball followed by that day's "NASCAR on FOX" race.