has typically preempted the lineup for Matlock telefilms quite often for the past ten years (usually to provide "make good" ad slots for local advertisers whose pre-scheduled inventory was preempted by breaking news or sports coverage), and the move had nothing to do with ratings, and that NBC had begun to push new programming on those March evenings without much advance notice; WKYC had originally scheduled the films when it was expected the night would carry mainly encore programming. Currently, the station's only preemptions outside of breaking news and weather situations mainly involve over-the-air simulcasts of Cleveland Browns games from ESPN's Monday Night Football. Sports programming Cleveland Indians WKYC was the over-the-air home of Major League Baseball games involving the Cleveland Indians (now the Cleveland Guardians) from the 2006 season to an unknown date. WKYC also provided studio operations for regional sports network SportsTime Ohio (now Bally Sports Great Lakes)—owned by the team itself until 2013—which aired the remainder of the team's games on cable and satellite and simulcast the games broadcast by WKYC. During baseball season, WKYC aired a weekly half-hour Indians-themed program, Indians Tonight, on Sundays at 11:35 p.m. Matt Underwood and former outfielder Rick Manning served as the announcing team for the Indians telecasts. All Indians games and other related programs were broadcast in high definition. In addition to Indians games produced in-house by channel 3, the station aired select Indians games through NBC's broadcast contract with MLB, first from its 1948 sign-on until 1989, and then for postseason games only from 1995 to 2000. Cleveland Browns With the Cleveland Browns' move to the newly formed American Football Conference after the completion of the AFL-NFL merger of 1970, channel 3, by way of NBC's rights to carry the AFC games, became the station of record for the team, replacing WJW in that role. This partnership would continue through 1995. Since 2006, Browns games are shown on channel 3 when the team plays on NBC's Sunday Night Football, and since 2019, in a simulcast with ESPN when the team plays on Monday Night Football. For many years, the station has also partnered with the Browns to carry preseason games and coach's shows since then, outside of five seasons (including two short-lived season deals with WOIO in 1999 and 2004, the latter of which ended before the 2005 season due to team displeasure with the station's coverage of its