For causing a lot of syndicated shows to not get a second season?

Everyone doesn't blame the O.J. trial. I know I don't.

Who's everyone?

Ed.

It was an event that allowed the 3 major networks to preempt or hijack scheduled programming about 5-6 days a week. There would be a live feed with reporters giving a synopsis of what was supposed to transpire, then a lively debate about court proceedings from the day before. Then all 3 majors would show the same camera views when court convened as the daily circus began. Of course, there were afternoon court sessions. Then there was a break for the local stations to run their news. Then there were evening "recaps" of what transpired that day. Of course, the farther you moved away from crazy California, then the decision to preempt probably decreased. However, you couldn't escape it even in northern Calif. Since I liked game shows like TPIR, I never saw it air or re-air missed episodes. Instead they ran missed shows like Sally Jesse Raphael and Jerry Springer after midnight.

I think the networks started to back off in the summer months because people were upset of their soaps being interrupted. This was before the wide use of the internet so people wrote angry letters. I remember my channels having those readable texts scrolling across the screen when General Hospital would be aired.

It wasn't a good time to be a struggling sitcom.

Some of the shows that failed included...
University Hospital, Heaven Help Us(both produced by Aaron Spelling.
Trauma Center(reality show, preceded Trauma Life In The ER by a few years.)
Can't remember anything else, but the OJ trial did doom the soaps for a while.

Who's everyone?

Ed.

That'll be a pretty long list.

They say that about soap operas although I don't know if I believe that.