Every year at this time, CBS's daytime soaps get pre-empted, and every year, the plaintive pleas of despondent soap opera viewers flood my phone line: "Where are my stories?"

So it's worthwhile to explain how pre-emptions work.

This month, CBS will air coverage of the NCAA Basketball Championship, which means it's a national pre-emption. When soaps are pre-empted nationally, those shows are not airing anywhere and viewers are not missing anything. Episodes are simply being stockpiled to air when the tournament concludes.

This year the pre-emptions will be March 18 and 19, and episodes of "The Young and the Restless" (12:30 p.m.), "The Bold and the Beautiful" (1:30 p.m.) and "As the World Turns" (2 p.m.) will not air in Pittsburgh or anywhere else in the country.

In addition, "Let's Make a Deal" (10 a.m.) is also pre-empted because many CBS stations air it at 3 p.m. when basketball will be on. KDKA will use "Dr. Phil," its 3 p.m. show, in the 10 a.m. "Let's Make a Deal" time slot.

And that's it: Just two days this month.

Other than at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, there are only a few other scheduled weekday pre-emptions for sports on CBS, Sept. 6 and 10.

ABC has no scheduled sports pre-emptions that will impact non-holiday programming on WTAE. However, both WTAE and KDKA sometimes snag the rights to air Steelers games that are also on cable, and those local pre-empts override prime-time lineups.

NBC recently pre-empted some daytime programming nationally on WPXI for the Olympics and will also pre-empt later this year for tennis and golf tournament coverage. "Days of Our Lives" (3 p.m.) will be pre-empted due to French Open Tennis on June 4, for Wimbledon on July 1 and 2 and for PGA golf on Sept. 6. "Days" will air at 2 p.m. June 17 and 18 because of the U.S. Open.

Again, these are network-wide, national pre-emptions. If it's a network pre-emption during network programming, which the soaps are, then those shows are not airing anywhere and when the show returns it will pick up where it left off.

Viewers may miss an episode of non-network programming -- syndicated talk, court or game shows -- but there doesn't seem to be the same uproar when those programs do not air.

When local news happens in daytime and local channels break in for news coverage, those are times when network soaps may be pre-empted. KDKA and WPXI generally try to air pre-empted episodes in late-night while WTAE directs viewers to cable outlet SOAPNet, which rebroadcasts ABC's soaps on a regular basis.

At the start of February sweeps, KDKA aired several "Does It Really Do That?" reports with traffic reporter Jim Lokay taking over for the late Yvonne Zanos. But then the reports sort of petered out. What happened?

"We're still trying to figure out the best way to move forward for everybody," said KDKA general manager Chris Pike last week. "We have more products in-house that we will test but we haven't yet."

Mr. Pike said the month's planned sweeps features were thrown off by coverage of the historic snows. He said ratings were not an issue (KDKA won at 5 p.m. as it usually does in households but was only one-tenth of a ratings point ahead of WTAE in the adults 25-54 demographic).

"I think we make assumptions every day about what affects the ratings and so I don't know we can draw anything definitive," Mr. Pike said. "In Yvonne's case, over a long period of time, anecdotally it would appear those things created some significant tune-in."

He said he could not determine how much interest was due to the segments and how much was due to Ms. Zanos' presentation.

"We've only had a few airings so far [with Mr. Lokay] so it's hard to tell," Mr. Pike said. "I suspect if we proceed with them, Jim will be doing them. There's nothing about what he did that would cause us to do anything different. If we hire a full-time consumer reporter ... it's possible that person would do them. We haven't even begun that process."

He said the consumer reporter position will ultimately be filled, adding that the thought of trying to fill the hole in the staff left by Ms. Zanos' death is daunting.

Last week I asked viewers to write in and tell me which local TV stations they watch for news (and why) without resorting to a laundry list of pet peeves. I received some probing responses and a lot of pet peeves.

I'd still like to get more nuanced responses about specific aspects of local newscasts that viewers enjoy and/or dislike, but I'm also interested in viewers' take on language.

This week, longtime Chicago broadcasting critic Robert Feder wrote about a memo issued by Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels about "newsspeak" words and phrases reporters and anchors for talk/radio station WGN should never use, including "after the break," "best kept secret," "icon" and "you folks," among 115 others.

Some make sense ("best kept secret" does seem like a cliched crutch) while others strike me as insane (how does a news organization avoid the word "alleged" if it plans to cover any crime stories?). The full list is linked from Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv.

Which words and phrases get overused by Pittsburgh TV news? Send me your examples via e-mail (rowen@post-gazette), at our online forum (at community.post-gazette.com/forums) or via letter (34 Blvd. of the Allies, Pittsburgh PA 15222) for use in an upcoming column. Please include your name, age, location and daytime telephone number.

My vote for overused phrase goes to "check it out," which is uttered so often by WTAE anchors that I have to wonder if they get a little something extra in their paychecks for each use.

"Worldfocus," produced by New York PBS station WNET and airing at 5 p.m. weekdays on Pittsburgh's WQED, has been canceled effective April 2.

WQED will extend its children's programming block to fill the hole left by the departure of "Worldfocus," adding the new "Electric Company" at 5 p.m.

WQED is back in business with pledge show producer T.J. Lubinsky, with plans to tape a concert music special at the Benedum Center over three nights, May 21-23. The lineup has not yet been announced but WQED promises "Doo Wop, folk and oldies from the '50s, '60s and '70s." The TV program will air in December.

Tickets will not be sold but will be given with pledge gifts; $180 for a three-night balcony seat was the least expensive offer I found at http://www.wqed.org/support/partner_events.php. For details, call WQED's events hot line at 412-622-1339.

The Post-Gazette's annual Keep or Cancel? poll, which allows viewers to play network programmer, is now in full swing. Cast your ballot for the shows you would keep and those you would cancel at post-gazette.com/tv. If you don't own a computer or more than one person in your household wants to vote, you can write to me -- no phone calls or e-mails accepted -- with your choices, age, gender and ZIP code. One ballot will be cast per envelope received.

A slew of broadcast network early renewals for the 2010-11 TV season was announced in the past week, including The CW's "Smallville," ABC's "Brothers & Sisters," Fox's "Fringe" and NBC's Thursday comedies "30 Rock," "The Office" and "Community" ("Parks and Recreation" was already renewed). ... Responding to fan fervor (and a Facebook page demanding she be invited), NBC's "Saturday Night Live" will welcome Betty White as guest host on May 8. ... Disney Channel's "Handy Manny: Big Race Pit Stop" visits South Hills Village Saturday at 1 p.m. (lower level north court) and Ross Park Mall March 20 at 2 p.m. (play area) with activities for children.

In today's online TV Q&A, there are responses to questions about actor Alex O'Loughlin, ABC's "FlashForward" and a new WQEX digital sub-channel. Tuned In Journal includes posts on an actor who keeps turning up in Pittsburgh-set shows, USA's "White Collar" and NBC's "Minute to Win It." Read online TV content at post-gazette.com/tv.

In this week's Tuned In podcast, enterprise writer Maria Sciullo and I discuss the Oscars telecast, the season finale of "Big Love" and "The Amazing Race." Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.

TV columnist Rob Owen's Tuned In+ is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.