Now that we are setting our clocks back, I got to thinking why, exactly, do people in the Midwest get to see all TV programs an hour earlier than those of us in the Eastern or Pacific Time Zones?
“Be sure to watch [fill in blank] tomorrow night! 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific - 8:00 PM Central!”
Does everyone in the Midwest have to go to bed early to get up and milk them-there cows?
Do you not understand what a time zone is? At 9 pm in the Eastern time zone it’s 8 pm in the Central time zone.
Yes, that’s exactly it. :rolleyes:
Preachers, militiamen and meth lab operators also have to get up early.
They watch the shows at the same time as the Right Coast, because the broadcasters can’t be arsed to time-shift it like they do to the Left Coast.
Of all the Canadian provinces, the one that doesn’t time switch at all is Saskatchewan. I have long questioned the excuse for time changing that it’s for farmers, since Saskatchewan was full of farmers that somehow managed to get along without changing the clocks. Bullshit, I say!
Sorry, you set me off on my bi-annual clock changing rant. What was the question again?
I’ve generally just figured that the border between Eastern Time and Central Time goes through relatively more densely populated ares and closer to cities, so it’s easier to have all the national programming be simultaneous for the whole area. Many people would be living in an area where their television broadcasts are originating on the other side of the border, or even have overlapping coverage from both. The other two time zone boundaries are in less densely populated areas, and less closely space media markets.
It throws me off when I visit Texas. If I want to watch a football game, for example, I have to remember they start at noon and three rather than one and four. I’d be even more confused if I went to California and Monday Night Football was kicking off at 5:30.
No, it’s just that the Eastern and Central folk aren’t back from Happy Hour yet, what with the rush hour traffic and all.
(Are you serious?)
I think it’s awesome. I get to watch all the same shows and get an extra hour of sleep. Losing my hour early programming would be a serious con if I ever were to consider moving to the east coast.
Ayup, I’m in Michigan so therefore I must be a farmer. 
:rolleyes: Don’t own a TV so don’t pay attention to what shows are on when.
Doin’ the happy dance about the time change here. I like to walk my dogs before work, and it sucks when it doesn’t even start getting light until about 7:30 a.m.
It was always strange watching TV in Saskatchewan – “prime time” shows would be on from 7 pm to 9 pm OR 6 pm to 8 pm, depending on the time of year.
I remember growing up (in the Central Time Zone) and watching TV. An upcoming show would be “at 9; 8 Central & Mountain.” Then they stopped with the “and Mountain” part and would just say “at 9; 8 Central.” Then they stopped saying the disclaimer about the hour-earlier broadcast time outside of the two coastal time zones and would just have a graphic on the screen with a big 9 and then a slash and a little 8 while saying “at 9.”
Nowadays many (most?) networks don’t even bother disclaiming the earlier broadcast times for those of us in the Central & Mountain time zones and just expect us to figure it out. Comedy Central, for as long as South Park has been on, has been advertising new episodes of SP as being on “Wednesday nights at 10”; despite the fact that it comes on at 9 where I live.
I always thought (since I was a kid) that the reason TV in the Central time zone was an hour early was that they did everything an hour early, and that they did that so financial institutions would be on the same time as East Coast financial institutions. So then it must be because everyone in the Midwest is a businessman.
I live in the midwest, and am not really a farmer, though I do own a farm. Because that’s what people in the midwest do, own farms. Sometimes we farm them, sometimes we rent out the farmland.
Ahem.
Yes, we are all farmers here. It is boring and cold here. You do not want to come here, ever. You would really, really hate it. Except for the TV, which is better and earlier than it is for you coast people.
Cecil answered this question long ago.
At least TV makes allowances for our agrarian lifestyle. I hate it when I have to leave the opera early so I can get up at dawn and cut the hay!