Here’s something that bugs me so I have to ask about it.
In all the places I have lived in here in Colorado, all three major markets with ABC, CBS and NBC local newscasts, the 10:00 pm report runs about 5-7 minutes over. Aka, it starts at 10:00 then ends at 10:37 or something like that.
The 5:00 or 5:30 newscasts are all 30 minutes but the late night news runs over several minutes. Now our FOX station has started a 9:00 newscast and it too runs over a standard 30 minute program about 5-7 minutes too.
Anyone know why this is? Who set this precedent and why? Oh, and is this normal for all stations in the country or is this just a Colorado or West States kind of thing?
Is the amount of actual programming the same and they sell more advertising or do they actually offer more news, weather and sports in this time period?
Where I live (due south of the preceding posters, El Paso TX) the local news ends around 10:40. However the 40 minute nightime newscast has no more info than the 30 minute newscast at 6:00. What happens is there is a long stretch of commercials around 10:30, a cut back to the newscast with a useless bit of anchor banter, a “who’s winnin the ball game” update from the sports guy, and the weatherman repeating that tomorrow will once again have record heat or cold. Then we get our Letterman.
It’s also a way to suck you into watching the local newscast. If you’re still watching the station at 10:32, you’re not very likely to switch over to some cable channel playing a rerun of Seinfeld, so it boosts ad revenue for the local news.
Most network stations have added the extra time to get more revenue from ads – local news is a big moneymaker for them. The network late night shows are designed to accomodate that – they start after the hour.