Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the station consistently ranked at a distant third place in the ratings behind WWL-TV and WDSU-TV, even as ABC topped the national ratings for a time in the mid-1970s. One of the primary reasons for WVUE's third-place position was the station's heavy preemptions of network programs. For example, during much of the 1970s, WVUE preempted portions of ABC's daytime soap opera lineup and aired westerns, cartoons and off-network sitcoms in their place. Additionally, WVUE did not carry many of the network's Saturday morning cartoons, as well as "American Bandstand". WVUE also preempted ABC's late night programming, which prior to the 1979 debut of "Nightline", consisted of movies and reruns of prime time series. Viewers in the New Orleans market that wanted to see most of ABC's full schedule could watch the network's other affiliates in surrounding markets: WRBT (now WVLA) and later WBRZ from Baton Rouge, west of New Orleans, to WLOX from Biloxi, to the east, or to WAPT from Jackson, to the north. Under Gaylord's ownership, WVUE reinstated ABC's entire lineup of daytime soaps to its schedule in the fall of 1978. In spite of ownership changes and programming modifications, WVUE was still unable to improve its standing in the ratings and largely wouldn't until it became a Fox affiliate.