I know this is infuriating for those of us who adore this 35-year-old soap opera.....but I think we have to take a deep breath and be realistic about The Sci Fi Channel's position.
It's not PBS....they aren't performing a community service here. Like it or not, it's a for-profit enterprise, and as such, is required to do things in a way that will maximize their profit potential.
Dark Shadows is a serial production....which means it is difficult for people who have never seen it before to jump into whatever episode they happen to catch, and be right up to speed on what's going on. Programs that have a serial structure have always been considered the least likely to be successful in syndication.
For the Sci Fi Channel, this means that they can count on hard core fans like us, but cannot ever reasonably expect a sudden rise in the number of regular DS viewers, no matter when they air it. We're it, from their point of view....and they can safely assume that many of us are taping it as well, and will manage to find it no matter what time slot they shift it to. If it seems like they are taking us for granted and treating us badly....well, they are. But the hard truth is that they CAN. What will we do about it? Threaten to watch the show somewhere else? Many of us can already do that because we have the tapes/DVDs....but we watch it on Sci Fi so that we're all on the same page and can talk about it here.
The reason they pre-empt DS when it's a holiday, is because they know that more people who don't normally watch the station will be flipping round the dial on those days. And they know that they have a better chance of getting those folks to stop and watch a marathon of "The Crypt Keeper" than an episode in the middle of the 1897 story of DS!!
Yes, it sucks. But what, exactly, can we ask Sci Fi (which, like most of us, has to make money) to do about it?
Raineypark