I’m not sure if they are trying to one up the competition. But the first local evening newscast starts a couple minutes early. I learned years ago that switching on the local news at 4:59 is too late. The anchors are already talking. They seem to start at 4:57. Right after Dr Oz. They skip a commercial break between Dr Oz and the news to start early.
Its not my clock. Its synched to time.gov. Also the 6pm and 10pm local newscasts start at those times. If my clock is right at 10pm then its right at 5pm too.
i think it is a widespread marketing move, maybe in the stations not in first place and like to hype sensational news. they start early with breaking news. stuff the missing commercials later.
Yeah, I just happened to be watching the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles (KCBS) and noted that their “CBS 2 News at 6:00” began at 5:58 AM according to both the cable box’s clock and their own clock in the “bug” at the bottom of the broadcast’s screen.
Years ago I was involved in a project related to recording television shows. We discovered that any relationship between the reported start time of a program and the actual start time was purely coincidental. It was common for a network’s schedule to be off as much as 3 minutes in either direction.
Yes, it’s fairly common. I think the reason they do it is because you are watching Dr. Oz and before you have a chance to change the channel you are watching the evening news. Had there been a standard-length commercial at that time you might have wandered off to another channel. Since people are basically lazy, they get ‘tricked’ into watching a news show that they might not normally watch. Other shows do it too, which means when I record Mike & Molly on my DVR I often miss the first joke or two, unless I happen to be recording the show that runs right before it…
i think the local news starts early so they can get an extra minute or two of commercials into the newscast…this means millions of dollars over the year
In San Antonio Jeopardy! (which airs on the CBS affiliate) starts at 4:28. I have to set my DVR recording to start 2 minutes early or else I miss at least a whole category. The 5 o’clock news that follows starts up 2 minutes early as well, immediately after the Jeopardy! credits finish. The station has been doing this consistently since I moved to town 7 years ago. Those extra two minutes presumably get used for extra commercials in the “half hour” newscast.
