So, i sit down to watch the BB marathon, and I notice the episodes seem a bit longer than they should be. But I didn’t look at the clock until after the second episode was over, and. I realized that AMC is adding 4 minutes per episode.
No wonder those commercial breaks seemed long!
You bastards, AMC!
I have seen other networks doing this, like Spike, but AMC is really being assholish about this.
I am no longer watching the BB marathon… I protest their money grubbing commercial marathon, interrupted with snippets of BB.
We’re doing this too. A long time ago we watched everything that Netflix streamed (up to Season 5 Part 1). Now that Season 5 Part 2 is out on disk we’re re-watching Part 1 on steaming and have the Part 2 disks waiting for us.
I am pretty sure that when they first aired on AMC they ran 64 minutes each as well. At least I know they did for the final season. So I guess you’re bitching because they didn’t cut something to fit them into the 60 minute time slot?
I did not realize that the episodes were 64 minutes in length.
I really don’t believe that they would make a show 4 minutes longer, especially during the first season, but maybe I’m wrong. Why would they?
So the thought process here is that AMC isn’t adding 4 more minutes worth of commercials, but 4 more minutes of show? I don’t buy that at all. I’d like to see some proof that they’ve lengthened the shows running time 4 minutes, and that 4 minutes is all show and no commercial.
By the way, this isn’t exactly new. Networks like Spike and others have been doing this for a while now. Usually, it is during a marathon… And it is really noticeable on shows that run 32-33 minutes instead of 30. But I know for a fact that shows are “lengthened” with commercials… And it makes sense for a shoe as popular as BB, since most folks wouldn’t notice/mind four extra minutes of commercials. That’s probably just an extra minute of commercials per break.
I’m curious as to the claim that BB has run 64 minutes, and those extra 4 minutes are show and not ads.
You may be right, Marley. But I just checked the guide in my TV, which tells you the length of a program, and for each 64 minute BB episode in seasons one and two, at least, the episodes are cut to run for 60 minutes.
Trust me, the commercial breaks are noticeably longer. You don’t notice it at first, but as the show wears in, you start to notice. 4 minutes of commercial time added to a 60 minute program is significant.
Spike has done 6 minutes, I believe. Makes the program almost unwatchable.
So, I’ve been looking for a reason to try Netflix. This is it!
I didn’t think Netflix had enough material to keep me interested - boy, was I wrong! Canadian Netflix is missing a lot of programmes, but it’s still more than enough for me (for now, anyway).
We just recently watched the US version of ‘House of Cards’ with Kevin Spacey, too - man, that was good. I think we’ll watch the UK version soon, too.
ETA: Looking at “Breaking Bad” on Netflix, I see the run times are 58 minutes for the pilot, and 48/47 for the rest of Season One.
This would make sense, except that our TiVo is attached to the TV my daughter watches and I have never bothered to move it.
Which is something I really need to do. Having TiVo and not really using it is kind of a waste. However, i don’t have a ton of free time to watch shows that have already aired and I forget about having TiVo in the first place.
I’ll just say what my thought process is: First run network programs aren’t 60 minutes long or 64 minutes long. They’re 50+ minutes long, with commercials added to bring the total time up to 60 minutes. Let’s say 50 minutes long, with 10 minutes of commercials.
When they are sold to syndication, they are shown with, say, 14 minutes of commercials per hour, instead of only 10. So the shows typically have 4 minutes of time cut from each hour-long program, to get to 60 minutes total.
I can’t say what Breaking Bad does. Maybe they are still made 50 minutes long for some reason, even though they only really needed 46 minutes of show, so they were always 64 minutes after commercials are added.
The average length of a Breaking Bad episode is 48 minutes. Only notable exceptions I can think of are the pilot and the last two episodes, which are about 10-15 minutes longer.
What I’d find far more annoying is that AMC insists on playing commercials with spoilers from later in the show, so people watching it for the first time have already seen certain huge plot points fifty times by the time they actually happen in the show.