The Falcons vs. Giants ‘Monday Night Football’ game will pre-empt ‘Dancing With the Stars’ on WSB October 22

DANCING WITH THE STARS - "Trios Night" - The 10 remaining celebrities discover that two may be company, but three is definitely not a crowd as former show stars, as well as some newbies, join the couples for a special Trios Night, on "Dancing with the Stars," live on MONDAY, OCT. 15 (8:00-10:00 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network.  (ABC/Eric McCandless)
JOE "GROCERY STORE JOE" AMABILE, JENNA JOHNSON, JORDAN KIMBALL

Credit: Eric McCandless

Credit: Eric McCandless

DANCING WITH THE STARS - "Trios Night" - The 10 remaining celebrities discover that two may be company, but three is definitely not a crowd as former show stars, as well as some newbies, join the couples for a special Trios Night, on "Dancing with the Stars," live on MONDAY, OCT. 15 (8:00-10:00 p.m. EDT), on The ABC Television Network. (ABC/Eric McCandless) JOE "GROCERY STORE JOE" AMABILE, JENNA JOHNSON, JORDAN KIMBALL

Originally posted Thursday, October 18, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog

WSB-TV will pre-empt ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” to air ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” this Monday featuring the Atlanta Falcons’ home game against the New York Giants.

The reality competition show, which airs live, will run at 2 a.m. early Tuesday morning six hours later.

Channel 2 Action News will run a special “Sports Zone” pre-game program at 7:30 p.m. hosted by sports director Zach Klein and Anthony Amey.

The Falcons, whose injury-ridden defense has left the team teetering at 2-4, face off against a fellow struggling rival in the Giants, who are 1-5.

The station airs the football game to provide access to the many viewers who don’t subscribe to ESPN.

“Dancing With the Stars” this season in its 27th incarnation has proven how hard it is to be a woman on the show: the first four celebrities eliminated have been female, including Tinashe last Monday despite the fact she had among the highest average dance scores with the judges on the show. (In the meantime, the voters are helping keep “Bachelor” dancer Joe Amabile around despite the worst scores among judges among all 13 celebrities.)

ABC's 10 p.m. re-airing of the first episode of "The Rookie" starring Nathan Fillion will run at 2:05 a.m. on early Wednesday morning October 24.

WSB-TV and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution are both part of Cox Media Group.