regular schedule of syndicated programs. The simulcasts shifted to the team's Monday Night Football matchups after ESPN took over the rights to that package from ABC (in a compensation deal by the NFL to make up for the loss of Sunday Night Football to NBC) in 2006. Presently, the station reschedules ABC's Monday night schedule to air in place of the network's late night lineup to accommodate the game, with Dancing with the Stars (which ABC moved to Mondays in September 2006) airing after the late newscast on the affected live performance episode's original airdate, incorporating a separate voting window for Kansas City-area viewers under a clause in the program's voting regulations that account for preemptions by ABC stations for MNF telecasts involving local NFL franchises, or extended breaking news or severe weather coverage in Dancings normal timeslot. Hearst Communications holds a 20% ownership stake in ESPN (the remaining majority interest and operational control of the network is maintained by ABC parent The Walt Disney Company, with Hearst acting more as a silent partner rather than an active participant in ESPN's management); as is the case with ABC's owned-and-operated stations, Hearst's television stations hold the right of first refusal for NFL game simulcasts from ESPN, which—as the telecasts are cable-originated—are required under NFL broadcasting rules to be simulcast on a broadcast television station in the local markets of both participating teams. KMBC also aired select Major League Baseball (MLB) games involving the Kansas City Royals that ABC telecast between 1976 and 1989 (when the network held rights to the Monday Night Baseball package), and from 1994 to 1995 (under the Baseball Network partnership involving ABC and NBC, which was disrupted in its first year by the strike that brought an abrupt end to the 1994 season). Notable Royals telecasts that aired on Channel 9 during ABC's contractual tenures with the league included the team's second World Series appearance in 1985, which saw the franchise win the first of the two World Series titles it has earned to date. News operation KMBC-TV presently broadcasts 34 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday and 4½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to local news programming, it is the third-highest newscast output among the Kansas City market's television stations. KMBC also produces 22 hours a week of local newscasts for