Shows That Don't End on the Hour

[alohatim]

I just noticed that "Law and Order" now runs 1 minute past the hour. It matches "Lost" in the same time slot.

Maybe all the networks could agree to start shows at 1 minute after..

Then we could invent "TV Savings Time" and set our clocks back by 1 minute.

Tim

[helen]

Re: Shows That Don't End on the Hour

There are times when Lost runs an extra 5 minutes. And ER on NBC has been starting a minute eariler for the last couple of years or so.

[alohatim]

Re: Shows That Don't End on the Hour

Yup..Lost is particularly annoying because of its varying program length.

My wife blames ME when the DVR cuts off the end the show!

I wish I were the King of all the Networks. If any exec tried to monkey with the start and end times--off with their heads! Well.. maybe just figuratively.

Tim

[pzarquon]

Re: Shows That Don't End on the Hour

Yeah, I automatically "pad" my "Lost" TiVo subscription by five minutes... and that's for a "regular episode." Of course, these late-running shows are sometimes marketed as an "extended episode," but I'd wager there's no extra five minutes of show... just five more minutes of commercials.

Just another way to discourage people from changing the channel... why switch to another station if their shows already started?

It's interesting that networks are doing this as a regular practice, considering how ridiculous things got locally with excessive ads basically pushing the 10 p.m. news to 10:07 p.m. But unlike that scenario, usually a 1:05 run time for a show means a 0:55 run time for the one that follows. Again, I doubt they mess with the content. It's just more profitable to sell more ads for the more popular first show.

[damontucker]

Re: Shows That Don't End on the Hour

Yeah, I automatically "pad" my "Lost" TiVo subscription by five minutes... and that's for a "regular episode." Of course, these late-running shows are sometimes marketed as an "extended episode," but I'd wager there's no extra five minutes of show... just five more minutes of commercials.

Just another way to discourage people from changing the channel... why switch to another station if their shows already started?

It's interesting that networks are doing this as a regular practice, considering how ridiculous things got locally with excessive ads basically pushing the 10 p.m. news to 10:07 p.m. But unlike that scenario, usually a 1:05 run time for a show means a 0:55 run time for the one that follows. Again, I doubt they mess with the content. It's just more profitable to sell more ads for the more popular first show.

Good point PZ...

"but I'd wager there's no extra five minutes of show... just five more minutes of commercials."

More commercials = more $.

Another thing is... the nielson ratings... if extending lost for the first 5 minutes can take away 1/20th of an hour of viewers from another station... then if they look at how many viewers are watching a show at say 8:04 on one channel... it might not actually reflect how many people will watch once lost is over.

I remember the old Wrestling wars between TNT and USA. They would try to constantly steal the other viewers by adding extra 10 minutes to the USA show so that the TNT ratings would drop.