Two questions about American TV
Dec. 3rd, 2009 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erastes1. What does it mean when it says "xxx show tomorrow night at 7/8"
2. How do you guys STAND it? The scheduling is so bloody random! shows are sometimes every week - and not even on the same night each week - then there's a gap of a week or two weeks or whatever - it's driving me bonkers!
I needs my Big Bang Theory!! And SGU!. And yes, I'm watching USA shows from the UK - but I'm watching the advertising, so that should be ok shouldn't it? I mean Gillette is Gillette the world over...
2. How do you guys STAND it? The scheduling is so bloody random! shows are sometimes every week - and not even on the same night each week - then there's a gap of a week or two weeks or whatever - it's driving me bonkers!
I needs my Big Bang Theory!! And SGU!. And yes, I'm watching USA shows from the UK - but I'm watching the advertising, so that should be ok shouldn't it? I mean Gillette is Gillette the world over...
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Date: 2009-12-03 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-03 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-03 10:14 pm (UTC)They have to break up the placement of new episodes so they can spread a season (22-24 episodes) from September/October to May/June. (The fall season)
It's just something we've always dealt with, so I'm used to it?
Oh, and the time is based on Eastern Time and Central Time. We have four time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific).
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Date: 2009-12-03 10:20 pm (UTC)Really? Most shows I know of are in set time slots. A typical drama or sit com has 22 episodes per full season, which are played over anywhere from 6 to 9 months - September/October/November through May. Obviously there are more than 22 weeks in that period, so they either air re-runs - not so much now days - or stick something new in that time slot to hopefully garner an audience/following, and then move it to another slot if it does well. November and May are the big "sweeps" months, so episodes airing then are first-runs. But moreso in recent years, some shows are pulled after a few episodes if they don't get the desired ratings, and others are inserted as mid-season replacements. It's become a lot messier and cutthroat than it used to be.
The sit-com Cheers, in its first season, did very poorly ratings-wise. By today's standards, it would have been yanked after the first year, and that would have been that. Cheers went on to be number one for several years running, spawned a number one spin-off (Frasier), made Thursday night TV "Must See", and ran for something like 7 years. Go figure.
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Date: 2009-12-03 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-03 10:55 pm (UTC)Well, that and to catch obscure Errol Flynn movies at weird hours.
The 8 eastern/7 central is a time zone thing. Naomi is about 300 miles east of me (and about 400 miles north) so she's in the eastern time zone, an hour ahead of me. I'm in the central. The D-Man, who cmments on my LJ, is about 600 miles west and 250 north, so he's in the Mountain time zone, an hour behind me.
This gets fun when you drive cross country and your truck runs on a different time zone than you live on. (I ran an hour early for the year I drove for Falcon)
I gave up on broadcast television ages ago. Some shows got moved around so much you needed a hunting dog and a ouija board to find them.
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Date: 2009-12-03 11:22 pm (UTC)eeeee SGU ♥For the most part, everything I watch is on weekly. It's during the holiday season that things get wonky. I like what SGU and BSG before it did with the mini-seasons; rather reminded me of the way my UK shows ran, actually. Straight runs of thirteen or so episodes, a break, and then all the rest. Bam.
What you're seeing in #1 has to do with the fact that America's too big for one timezone. ;-) "8/7 Central" points to a scheduling change between the two easternmost zones; if Eastern time folks see something at eight, the show may be airing simultaneously in Central time, which is one hour behind.
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Date: 2009-12-03 11:25 pm (UTC)If I recall correctly - and I don't often - in the olden days, when we only had 4 channels, the tv season ran from September through May. The shows were pretty much every week, except maybe they took off for holidays. Then reruns ran all summer. You could count on this. Now- who knows? And yes, thank goodness for tivo!
wren
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Date: 2009-12-03 11:39 pm (UTC)very annoying.
And hello!
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Date: 2009-12-04 01:50 am (UTC)I hardly watch TV, so the interrupted regular schedules don't bother me.
And just so you know since you're watching Big Bang Theory- CheeseCake Factory looks a lot better in real life than it does in the series, and their uniforms aren't nearly as ugly.
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Date: 2009-12-04 01:53 am (UTC)Someone else in this post mentioned sweeps, and I've also heard that they don't do a full year of episodes on some shows because it's a lot more expensive to produce an episode of Lost or BSG than it is something like Seinfeld or Cheers where the action is limited in scope. Don't really care - it drives me nuts.
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Date: 2009-12-04 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 07:05 am (UTC)No wonder the UK showings have to start well after the US ones, so they don't get stuck with the same kind of nonsense and can show them straight through.
Not that I tend to watch series while actually broadcast now. I just get the DVDs. No ads and I make my own schedule
or watch an entire series of Lost in a weekend...And that was especially good for 24, so I didn't end up on my knees in front of the TV going "NO!! I can't wait a WEEK!! Come back!!!!" Of course, the trouble with 24 on DVD is you can never watch just 1...no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-04 03:55 pm (UTC)