Entertainment

Scared of the Super Bowl, channels hold off on new episodes

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CHEESE: To escape Super Bowl crush, “Girls” airs on Saturday and “Revenge” (inset) won’t be on at all. (
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When the Super Bowl starts Sunday night, the other TV channels have a fail-proof game-day strategy of their own: Run for the hills.

From “Mob Wives” to “Revenge,” Sunday night’s most popular series will all but disappear during the game.

Some will air repeat episodes — why waste a new show? — or take the night off rather than get steamrolled by the big game.

Among the networks going into a full retreat, ABC is pulling both “Revenge” and “Once Upon a Time,” showing already-seen episodes of “Shark Tank” and “Modern Family” during their time slots.

Fox is throwing in the towel with an all-repeat lineup, while NBC will fill the night with old episodes of the Betty White comedy series “Off Their Rockers.”

Super Bowl Sunday, said HBO’s Susan Ennis, presents an insurmountable challenge for rival networks, even compared to other once-a-year events.

“Three-quarters of our homes watch the Super Bowl,” said Ennis, an executive vice president of program planning and strategy. “A third watch the Oscars.”

In response, the network is conducting an experiment with its Sunday lineup, moving new episodes of “Girls” and “Enlightened” to Saturday night.

“We often toy with the idea, ‘Do you take a hiatus?’ We know our ratings will be down significantly during the Super Bowl,” Ennis said.

(HBO will repeat both shows at their regular times on Sunday, as well.)

At VH1, programmers decided not to waste an original episode on Super Sunday, and will skip a week.

Only one popular Sunday show appears brave enough to buck the tidal waves of the NFL’s championship game.

“Downton Abbey” is sticking to business as usual, airing a new episode at 9 p.m., the standard time.