WTAE-TV
Although it was the only ABC affiliate in the region when it signed on at the time, WTAE-TV also pre-empted and/or delayed a handful of ABC programs, most notably some of its daytime lineup from the 1960s to the late 1990s. WTAE-TV did not begin running "Good Morning America" until December 1978, and only aired an hour of the program until 1980. "One Life to Live" did not run on WTAE-TV from its 1968 debut up until 1978, when the soap opera expanded to an hour-long format. From 1969 to 1971, and again from 1974 to 1979, ABC shows that were not broadcast on channel 4 ended up airing instead on WPGH-TV. After 1980, some of these shows ran on WPTT (channel 22, now WPNT). WTAE-TV also preempted the Sunday morning ABC children's programming block the entire time ABC offered it, as well as a couple of hours of ABC's Saturday morning cartoons until 1979. WTAE-TV ran syndicated cartoons in place of the network-supplied children's programs, while the pre-empted Saturday morning network programs (including "American Bandstand") aired on WPGH during that time.
One Life to Live
On April 18, 2013, after Prospect Park had announced they would be reviving the series, Prospect Park filed a lawsuit against ABC, alleging ABC failed to honor its part of their licensing agreement. Among the issues named in the lawsuits included ABC's alleged attempts to sabotage Prospect Park's revival of the soap by killing off "One Life to Live" characters loaned to "General Hospital" (Cole and Hope Thornhart), failure on ABC's part to consult Prospect Park on storylines involving "One Life to Live" characters (breaking up popular "One Life to Live" couple, John and Natalie to pair Michael Easton's John McBain with former "Port Charles" love interest, Kelly Monaco's Sam Morgan, the death of Tea Delgado's baby and the subsequent switching of her baby with Sam Morgan's live baby, orchestrated by Howarth's Todd Manning), as well as claiming one "One Life to Live" character, Tomas Delgado, was actually "General Hospital" character, Lorenzo Alcazar. Effective immediately, the three "One Life to Live" characters bound to contracts with ABC were to exit the show, and the three actors who played them, Kristen Alderson, Michael Easton and Roger Howarth were rewritten back onto the "General Hospital" canvas playing new characters, while Howarth also crossed his character of Todd back over to "One Life to Live" for its inaugural season.