Also life-long CSTer (?) and I would think staying up until 11:00 PM for news would be hectic for those of us who actually get to work by 8:00 AM. Of course with DVRs it’s not so bad but watching Carson at 11:30 would have been difficult.
Perhaps that’s part of the midwest work ethic - we got enough sleep to actually get work done. Your opinions may vary!
I grew up in the central time zone, then my family moved to the eastern time zone when I was in my teens. I’ve been in the eastern time zone ever since.
As the family was preparing for the move we were all wondering how that would work. Primetime doesn’t end til 11pm?! What the heck? There was definitely some culture shock involved when we were making the adjustment, as well as the fact that everyone on the east coast drives like absolute crazy people.
Now, 30 years later, looking back it seems to me that people in the central time zone simply live their lives an hour earlier than east-coasters. For example, while 6pm seemed like a normal dinner time growing up, on the east coast 6pm would be super early to have dinner. 7pm is the standard dinner hour.
Similarly, I get the feeling that 8am may be a fairly common starting time for the workday in the central time zone. In the eastern time zone that would be unusual. 9am is the standard start time. So it really boils down to if you sleep from 10pm to 6am (central) or 11pm to 7am (eastern).
This kind of makes sense from a business perspective. It means both workdays start at the same time.
I grew up in the Eastern Time zone, but I’ve lived in the Mountain Time zone for over 30 years. I’ve gotten used to prime time being from 7 to 10 and actually prefer it. It means you can watch more of the Tonight Show or Saturday Night live before you go to bed and even watch some of what comes on after that if you want.
I got no prob with prime time starting at 7, as in the the Central, although it is possibly a trifle too early. However, I’ve always had a bigger problem with the nightly news and late night shows starting at 11 (as in Eastern time zone.) That’s just too late, I prefer the 10 o’clock news being at 10:00 PM.
I can’t say it’s annoying, because it’s all I’ve ever known. But it does make you think of TV schedules in slightly different “blocks” than someone who’s only known Eastern Time.
For example, since the network news comes on at 5:30 PM, I tend to think of it as a late afternoon program (maybe not in winter when it’s mostly dark by then). But since local stations like to program local news at 6, both in Eastern and Central, it means that “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy” don’t air back-to-back as frequently as in the Eastern/Pacific zones:
http://www.graphgraph.com/2014/03/jeopardy-and-wheel-of-fortune-airtimes-in-graphs-and-maps/
Most CBS affiliates in Central run “The Young and the Restless” at 11 AM while most on the coasts run it at (what I think of as) 11:30. There are two feeds to allow stations to program local “noon” news as appropriate.
With present technology, would it be too expensive or bothersome for the networks to have four feeds so that they can announce one timeslot for the whole contiguous US? (Trouble is, which set of patterns would be adopted, and [DVR aside] would people resent having their viewing patterns changed?)
That’s about it. I find it quite interesting at how early Central Time folks get into work and all that. I wake up at 8AM (I get to work by 9:00am and stay until 6pm most days). Waking up at 6am may kill me ;). I hardly ever go to bed by midnight (most nights I’m still up at 1am).
I like the way it works in the Mountain zone. Honestly, I think that it is the best zone for TV and especially live sports. Something like Monday Night Football starts at 6:30 PM and generally is over by 10. Then you can go to bed, if you want, and get a full night’s sleep or still go ahead and watch the local news and then one of the talk shows.
Thank you for the clarification, Broomstick, in your first sentence. It was confusing.
I’m another CTer. It’s nearly all I’ve ever known, except for a year or so in Atlanta when I was 21. Whilst there, I was too busy ringing belles to pay the TV much attention.
See, there’s the answer to everything. The folks in the Central time zone get our TV an hour early, so we can go to bed an hour early, so we can get up an hour early, so we can go to work early because those a*holes in the East Coast offices insist on having their conference calls when THEY come in at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time.
Sports is a main reason I love the Eastern time zone. I wouldn’t want my NFL Sunday to start earlier than 1pm. 11am kickoff just sounds gross to me. heh.
I hadn’t considered that East Coast people work 9 to 6 until this thread.
8 to 5 is the norm here in Central time. It’s a pain when I need to call a company in California. Its usually 10AM my time before they stumble into work.
When I was a little kid in Central time, my bedtime was 7pm, but I could stay up a little later if there was a Charlie Brown special or similar show on. I felt sorry for the East Coast kids who never stood a chance with shows not coming on until 8pm.
When I moved to PST, it was a little annoying that there wasn’t anything good to watch during dinner when we are sitting still, looking for some casual viewing. By 8 we would be doing dishes or other activites other than sitting in front of the TV, so I wouldn’t usually see a show unless it was worth making time for.
Ah, the tornado that made legendary anchorman Bill Kurtis a legend with his ad-libbed, “For God’s Sake, Take Cover!!!”
CT here. If I lived in ET or PT I’d never see the shows that start at 9PM for me. As it is, I try to be in bed before any late-night shows start. Blame it on a good, Mid-Western, “early to bed and early to rise” upbringing, and starting work at 8AM.
The usual pattern in the east is local news from 5:00-6:30 (maybe just 6:00-6:30 in smaller markets), the network news from 6:30-7:00, and then an hour for the stations to fill before the network’s prime time schedule starts (one of them will have Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in this hour).
It messes up my mind every year. I live in New York most of the year but I travel down to Texas for a month during the winter. One of the things I have to remember when I’m down there is all of the shows are on an hour earlier.
Just don’t change the time on your watch! (If you still use one)
I don’t like Eastern time. Having grown up on Central, during the few years I lived on Eastern, everything seemed too late. Monday Night Football being a prime example.
Do people really eat dinner at 7? That seems ungodly late to me. Even 6 is pushing it.
I grew up in Pacific time and then moved to Mountain. I just moved my wife back to Pacific and one of the things we talked about being terrible was having to wait until 8 for prime time. Of course she leaves for work by 430 am so she’s asleep by 9 at the latest, before she could watch her shows and now she’ll be lucky to make it to the end of an early hour long drama. I’m the one who gets to sleep in in the family and 10 only happens on week nights where something crazy is happening. I couldn’t imagine being forced back to the late prime time at least until I’m retired.
No problem here. But then my Wife and I don’t follow any shows. Anyway, I think people that live in the western US tend to go to bed and get up much earlier. I’m always in bed by 9pm if it’s a work night. My Wife gets up at 4am, I get up at 5am.