TV shows were scheduled for your local stations and there may be an alternate channel that would have an echo or rebroadcast schedule.

If you wanted to watch "your show" you had to either have someone record it, or record it yourself. There were even VCRs that could be programmed to start recording at a certain point for a specific duration.

In all of humanity's many combinations of people, situations, and outcomes, yes, this has happened hundreds of thousands of times.

It's literally a meme that "oh! no, don't watch that one--that has our sex tape in the middle".