# Fucking TV Station **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 27, 2010, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031 "2010-11-27T00:48:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/21 "2010-11-27T13:44:19Z")
There’s no reason why the stations can’t just schedule the games to run for four hours in the first place, and then just cut over to the regularly scheduled programming. A few times of that, and the players and coaches WILL learn to quit scratching their heads (and asses) when they should be playing the game, and get the game played in the allotted time. And if the game runs shorter, then we can have post game commentary. Or more Sham Wow commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/22 "2010-11-27T13:53:47Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > There’s no reason why the stations can’t just schedule the games to run for four hours in the first place, and then just cut over to the regularly scheduled programming. Fox started doing this years ago. CBS refuses because the execs at CBS can’t imagine 60 Minutes scheduled at any other time than Sunday at 7 PM. ---
**Author:** ![ratmanizhere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@ratmanizhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratmanizhere)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/23 "2010-11-27T15:43:56Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Morons let some damned football game run on forever, shoving everything else on teh channel off. > > My mom has alzheimers, and is going nuts because the show that she always watches right now is not on. She is seriously upset because the program on the TV is not matching up with her printed TV guide… Every time she gets upset I have to remind her gently that the football game pre-empted programming so the stuff she is expecting to be on TV because it is printed so isn’t there. > > Fucking jackasses. Just so they can repeat things in slow motion, show nubile tits and ass jiggling, and stretching the game out so they can sell more expensive advertising. And it doesn’t help when they do start the program, it’s ALREADY in progress! Makes it very confusing for some elderly people. :mad: BTW, hugs for you for taking on one of the hardest jobs in the world ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/24 "2010-11-27T15:47:44Z")
Bet the OP’s mom loves March madness. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/25 "2010-11-27T15:53:07Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Fox started doing this years ago. CBS refuses because the execs at CBS can’t imagine 60 Minutes scheduled at any other time than Sunday at 7 PM. Heh. I didn’t know this. I watch very little TV, and I can’t remember the last time I watched a Fox channel. My husband has been out of town since Tuesday morning, and I turned on the TV Tuesday evening, but turned it off after I couldn’t find anything that I wanted to watch. And CBS does have a point…many people don’t like shows to get moved around. But this means that we don’t want sports to pre-empt our shows, either. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/26 "2010-11-27T15:54:10Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > Get momma a DVR. Set up season passes for her favorite shows. If they follow football games, add an extra hour. Problem solved. Or have a rerun on tap, so when it’s time for her to see what she’s wanting, you can show her an older episode (and you can record a new program while she’s watching what’s in memory). ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/27 "2010-11-27T15:57:14Z")
I think that **kaylasdad99** might have the solution for you. It’ll calm Mama, and who’s to say that it wouldn’t have been a rerun anyway? My mother also has Alzheimer’s, and on her bad days, anything can set her off, and she’ll be miserable for the rest of the day. And everyone else will be miserable, too. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/28 "2010-11-27T16:01:28Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > Look, you may not like Football, but plenty of people do, Those people’s opinions are of negligible worth, and they can just suck it up. When it’s time to show _Heidi_, it’s time to cut away from the progamming that can’t keep all of it’s shit in one sock enough to not overrun its allotted time, and SHOW _HEIDI_. It’s not like football is actually important, and money isn’t everything. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/29 "2010-11-27T16:02:49Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > Look, you may not like Football, but plenty of people do, Those people’s opinions are of negligible worth, and they can just suck it up. When it’s time to show _Heidi_, it’s time to cut away from the progamming that can’t keep all of its shit in one sock enough to not overrun its allotted time, and SHOW _HEIDI_. It’s not like football is actually important, and money isn’t everything. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/30 "2010-11-27T16:11:51Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Those people’s opinions are of negligible worth, and they can just suck it up. When it’s time to show _Heidi_, it’s time to cut away from the progamming that can’t keep all of its shit in one sock enough to not overrun its allotted time, and SHOW _HEIDI_. > > It’s not like football is actually important, and money isn’t everything. That bears repeating. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/31 "2010-11-27T16:25:32Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > It’s not like football is actually important, and money isn’t everything. This is a bizarre thread. Frankly it makes more sense to blame mother for getting Alzheimers than it does to blame a TV channel for upsetting her. The commercial station’s main duty is, in fact, to serve those customers who represent the most revenue. If those customers want 5’hours of postgame, pregame whatever nonsense, it’s perfectly legitimate for them to make that choice. They really have nonduty to schedule for one person with a disability. And who knows what myriad of vents would upset that person anyway? I hate football. I find other ways to satisfy my entertainment needs during those times. It’s up to you to figure out how best to satisfy your mother when something like this happens, not a TV station. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/32 "2010-11-27T16:32:14Z")
> [@](#): > > The commercial station’s main duty is, in fact, to serve those customers who represent the most revenue. If those customers want 5’hours of postgame, pregame whatever nonsense, it’s perfectly legitimate for them to make that choice. I don’t think that anyone is getting upset about the actual length of the game, but rather that the stations don’t schedule enough time for the game. If they KNOW that just about all football games are going to run for four or four and a half hours, then they should reflect that in the scheduling. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ea5d25/32.png) [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/33 "2010-11-27T16:40:10Z")
> [@](#): > > It’s not like football is actually important, and money isn’t everything. Football is not actually important, in the cosmic sense. And money isn’t everything, in the cosmic sense. But in the limited universe that comprises television, and its reason for existing, money IS everything, and therefore football IS important. The television station, in order to make money, caters to the millions of football fans rather than the hundreds of people who break down when their particular show is not on. And blindly accepting the premise that the games always run over is flawed. We’re going to need some data on this, because every game I’ve watched this season has been under, and they’ve thrown me over to different games to fill the time. So I don’t accept the baseline assertion. Besides which, the station has also determined that staying with the game if it goes over is better revenue than cutting to the show. I love how the first joke in this thread was a Heidi joke. I don’t care if you hate football. That’s your own thing. But blaming a television station for following its business model rather than catering to your mom is silly. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/34 "2010-11-27T17:09:51Z")
She wasn’t blaming the television station; she was blaming her television _ **SET** _. 😛 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/35 "2010-11-27T18:34:39Z")
The next time that something like this happens, I’d try making a large sign to try to explain what happened and put it on the TV to help her remember what’s going on. Sometimes people with dementia do better if they have important information written down for them. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/36 "2010-11-27T19:36:20Z")
Did we really need a [second pit thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=586457) on the front page about football overruns? As someone who is dealing/dealt with more than one elderly parent (including in-laws and grands) in various states of dementia, I can commiserate on the difficulties in dealing with them. But there is a reason networks pay huge amounts of money to show sports - it is hugely profitable, so much so that regular programming always gets pre-empted. For the record, it is very rare for a football game to exceed 3:15, and quite a few finish in under the 3 hours allotted. Baseball is another story. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/37 "2010-11-28T18:08:19Z")
On the radio here, a single football game is an all-day affair. Pre-game show starting early in the morning, three hours of football, and a post-game show that extends late into the night. Seriously … people listen through the entire deal? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/38 "2010-11-28T19:10:26Z")
Have you ever spent rme in the company of Men? The majority of dudes inmoir society nor only watch all that stuff, they spend every available minute ormthe rest of their lives thinking, talking, and breathing this stuff. It always puts me at a loss because I can’t bs bothered with sports myself, but, yes, that’s what our culture is. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/39 "2010-11-28T20:12:28Z")
Same here, **acsenray**. I don’t follow baseball, football, basketball and it really puts me out of the loop. There are a lot of sports fanatics out there, women too. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031/40 "2010-11-29T17:16:01Z")
As **Justin Bailey** alluded to earlier, Fox figured this out long ago; if they have the double-header on a Sunday, they don’t broadcast anything for half an hour after the games are scheduled to end (7:30). Instead, if the games end quick, they show _The OT_, which is basically their pregame panel jabbering over highlight packages. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > She wasn’t blaming the television station; she was blaming her television _ **SET** _. 😛 😃 Specifically, the little men inside who fooled her into thinking that _60 Minutes_ would be broadcast at its regular time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-tv-station/562031.md?page=3)