Oops, they did it again.

Channel 50 gave devoted "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" fans a reason to get extremely huffy with a scheduling snafu over the weekend.

The local UPN station preempted the Nov. 12 episode of "Buffy" for a Red Wings telecast, something that has become a frustrating regular occurrence for "Buffy" loyalists since the series moved to UPN (Channel 50) last season.

The station regularly airs Red Wings and Pistons games, forcing the rescheduling of UPN shows.

But this time it wasn't the preemption itself that caused the problem.

It was Channel 50's last-minute decision to change the previously announced rescheduling of the "Buffy" episode from 4 p.m. Sunday to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Irate "Slayer" fans flamed the Channel 50 offices in Southfield with cranky voice mail and e-mail complaints when they couldn't find "Buffy" at 4 p.m. Sunday.

"It's not like I was deliberately trying to screw them up," Channel 50 program director Paul Prange said Monday.

So what happened?

After the original 4 p.m. Sunday rescheduling date had been announced and printed in the Free Press TV Book and TV Guide, UPN canceled the suspense series "Haunted," which follows "Buffy" on Tuesdays and replaced it with a "WWE Super Tuesday" wrestling special. So?

"We always try not to schedule wrestling against football, and the Lions were playing (on Fox, Channel 2) at 4 p.m. Sunday," Prange explained.

If it had been "Buffy" and "Haunted," they would have aired at 4-6 p.m. Sunday. But because it was "Buffy" and the WWE special -- and UPN policy dictates that preempted network series should air as a two-hour block -- Prange made the late change to 2 p.m. Saturday.

The resulting sound made by Buffyphiles who missed Channel 50's on-air announcements of the switch?

Aaaargh!

"We 'Buffy' fans are becoming increasingly frustrated with Detroit's UPN station," Juanita Smith of Southgate said in an e-mail message to the Free Press. "The least UPN-50 could do is provide the right information."

If he had it all to do over again, Prange wouldn't have made the change. "But hindsight's 20/20," said the program director.

"We sincerely apologize to viewers who missed the telecast and have addressed and corrected the situation that caused the last-minute schedule revision," said an apology and explanation posted on the station's Web site at www.upn50.com.

Prange said he's hopeful that UPN will schedule a repeat of the Nov. 12 "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode sometime over the next two months. Also, there are no further Channel 50 preemptions of the show scheduled until mid-January.

Happy holidays, Buffy fans. Did you say, bah, humbug?!