Usa Pulls ‘Murder She Wrote’ For ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Reruns

Friday was a sad day for fans of “Murder, She Wrote.”

That’s because it was the first time since the show started on CBS in 1984 that the popular drama starring Angela Lansbury wasn’t available for viewing somewhere on the TV dial.

USA Network, home to reruns of the show since 1988, is replacing the series with reruns of “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

USA kicked off its “Walker” run Friday with a rerun of the show’s 1993 two-hour debut episode. On Monday, USA starts airing “Walker” weeknights at 8.

And that leaves “Murder, She Wrote,” well, dead for now.

Since launching in rerun form on USA in 1988, “Murder, She Wrote” has been a nightly staple for the cable channel and one of its most popular shows. The program was also a huge hit for CBS, which aired it for most of its network run on Sunday nights, although it was moved to Thursdays in 1995, its final season.

“Murder, She Wrote” fans shouldn’t give up all hope.

It is still possible another cable network could pick up the rights to the drama or that it could eventually end up going the local-market route via syndication.