# How much leeway do local TV affiliates have? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585 "2011-08-30T03:16:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![monkeylucifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@monkeylucifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monkeylucifer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/21 "2011-09-03T01:13:53Z")
Our local CBS affiliate shows Craig Ferguson’s show a half hour later so they squeeze Friends in after Letterman, which pisses me off because I hate Friends and love Craig’s show. Late night shows seem to be moved back to later time slots in many, many, many markets. Conan used to do this bit about how one affiliate aired his show at something like 3AM and because of that really late/early time slot they would run really crappy commercials during it. One of them was for a mattress store. It was a running gag to show them for a good bit and I think they even had the guys from the ads on the show at one point. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/22 "2011-09-03T01:59:06Z")
Starting in two weeks, our local NBC station will move the fourth hour of the _Today Show_ back to 11:00 a.m. so they can put an hour of something or other at 10:00 a.m. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/23 "2011-09-03T23:30:45Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > That’s odd. They must have gotten CBS to send it to them a half an hour before the rest of the country. Some googling seems to show it was some sort of experiment by CBS (it’s an owned and operated station, not a franchisee) and when it became obvious it wasn’t working they moved it back to 11:30 like the rest of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/24 "2011-09-04T00:55:38Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Some googling seems to show it was some sort of experiment by CBS (it’s an owned and operated station, not a franchisee) and when it became obvious it wasn’t working they moved it back to 11:30 like the rest of the country. Just for the record, it is on at 10:30 in the [Mountain](http://denver.cbslocal.com/program-guide/) and [Central](http://chicago.cbslocal.com/program-guide/) time zones. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/25 "2011-09-04T20:24:02Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Just for the record, it is on at 10:30 in the [Mountain](http://denver.cbslocal.com/program-guide/) and [Central](http://chicago.cbslocal.com/program-guide/) time zones. well, 10:30 central is 11:30 eastern, and no one much cares about about mountain time except as an afterthough, mi rite?😛 ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/26 "2011-09-10T04:12:36Z")
My problem in the reverse of the OP’s. The local Fox and CBS affiliates routinely pre-empt their Sunday afternoon NFL games. I’ll hear the network talking heads shill the afternoon game, but come 3:30 pm, it’s off to X-games, professional bull riding, or some poker tour. Me not happy wi dat. Me want futball. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/27 "2011-09-10T08:45:17Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > That’s odd. They must have gotten CBS to send it to them a half an hour before the rest of the country. Letterman’s CBS run had a rough start. Network president Howard Stringer called in every marker he had amongst the affiliates, and the best he could do in the first year was a 75 percent “clearance” (i.e. the number of affiliates carrying that particular show). Even so, for his first year, Letterman was winning the ratings battle over Leno’s Tonight Show for about 90 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/28 "2011-09-10T11:41:29Z")
> [@Toucanna](#): > > My problem in the reverse of the OP’s. The local Fox and CBS affiliates routinely pre-empt their Sunday afternoon NFL games. I’ll hear the network talking heads shill the afternoon game, but come 3:30 pm, it’s off to X-games, professional bull riding, or some poker tour. Me not happy wi dat. Me want futball. :mad: Are you sure the network has the double-header that week? For instance, this week Fox has the double-header, so on CBS you’ll get an early game or a late game (if there are any late AFC games this week) but not both. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585/29 "2011-09-10T11:48:53Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > When Letterman moved to CBS, the local affiliate actually aired his show at 11pm instead of 11:30 for a while, due to not having a local newscast on the station. Eventually they moved him back to 11:30 and started running sitcom reruns at 11. I think it was Seinfeld at first, now it’s 2.5 Men. For quite awhile, it seemed. I like that time slot better anyway. I wish all those shows started at 11 and had their follow-ups start at 12. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-leeway-do-local-tv-affiliates-have/594585.md?page=1)