This is really just for dopers in US time zones other than Eastern.
Do the networks tape delay the New Year’s Eve Times Square festivities or do you get to see some other celeb in a city in your time zone in real time?
I think they usually show the ball drop live, and then show it again at midnight local time. That’s what I’ve seen out here, anyway…
I wasn’t paying attention to a TV at 9 PM, but our ABC affilliate showed the ball drop on tape delay at midnight, and on the 11 o’clock news, there was a roughly two second long snip of the drop, mixed in with brief shopts from other celebrations.
Other channels had their own local, and live, programming at midnight.
Most of us get the NYC event, tape delayed.
We don’t get much live TV out here, even in L.A. which is just as much a TV production center as is New York. Heck, even Fridays, a short-lived response to Saturday Night Live was broadcast from L.A., live to the Eastern and Central time zones, but tape delayed for us.
I’ve never noticed it at 9 pm in California, when the networks were showing their regular programming. Near midnight they were in NY, clearly tape delayed. A local channel showed a countdown in a San Francisco hotel, and the SF fireworks, and some in Seattle also.
I’ve often wondered what would happen if something interesting - a riot, an attack by Godzilla - happened in Times Square at midnight Eastern.
here in Chicago we got the obligatory Dick Clark’s Rock 'n Roll show, broadcast live AND via tape delay. Which is fine and dandy but kinda pointless. I found it more interesting to see how the rest of the world celebrated new year’s festivities like with the PBS live 24 hour new millennium special (now THAT was a new year’s show!). We also had live, local celebrations. Chicago has a nightlife and street and party scene of its own and the local stations do not hesitate to broadcast that live too
In the midwest (central time) it pretty screwy how they show the Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest thing.
They showed “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve Pt.1” from 9:00 to 10:00 basically showing Times Square and some musical acts (live?).
Then from 10:00 to 11:00 CST they had the local news on and some other syndicated 30 min sitcom.
Then from 11:00 to Midnight CST they aired “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve Pt.2” which I assume was an hour time delayed version of what the east coast already saw with the ball drop syncing with midnight CST.
Out here on the west coast we watched everything live (Midnight EST / 9:00 pm PST) on various cable networks. It was repeated on various news programs at 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm PST, followed by the tape delay beginning at 11:30 pm PST.
BTW, did any catch the gay reference piece made to Anderson Cooper on CNN? He tried to brush it off.
West coast. I generally see the tape-delay with an inset of local events, but also can watch Times Square in real time on CNN.
California here. Originally from New Jersey.
I’ve been out here for 8 New Year’s Eve celebrations now. We celebrate twice. Watching the ball drop on tape just doesn’t feel the same as watching it live and since all my family and friends back East call to wish me a Happy New Year at 9 PM our time, it just feels like the New Year to me. In the past we’ve watched it on various webcasts (didn’t have cable.)
This year we watched the ball drop with Anderson Cooper live on CNN at 9 and Dick Clark taped at 12.
Our NBC affiliate did something sort of strange. They’ve been doing a big fireworks display at the Space Needle for ten year or so, and KING showed that at midnight. Then they showed a tape delay of Times Square, so that the ball dropped at 1 am.
[The Space Needle pyrotechnicians had a bad night–The computer controlling everything crashed, so that the fireworks stopped while the music continued. They eventually set them all off manually, but never did get things synched with the music. It’s hard to imagine the kind of adrenaline spike the crew must have withstood when the system went down 20 seconds after the show started. I bet some of them are still catatonic.]
As a midwesterner I’ve spent a lifetime watching the ball drop at 11:00 p.m. I deeply appreciated Conan O’Brien’s New Year’s Eve in Indiana bits (where someone tried to race across the state to ring in the new year in both the Eastern and Central time zones and hilarity ensues.) At least someone was aware the U.S. has more than one time zone.
Former Chicagoan here. I definitely remember watching that secondary thing going on with Dick Clark at 11:00, but I’m pretty sure we had our own thing going on at 12:00. I was too busy kissing girls though to notice. Did I mention how much of a total stud I was too? Why don’t these pants fit anymore?
Hawaii here.
I watched the taped version on local TV here at midnight, I don’t think there was a live version at all here at 6:00 pm.
Well, what other option was there? Either you
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broadcast it live to the West Coast at 11:30 ET/8:30 PT, which would screw up the West Coast’s evening broadcast schedule,
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have the performers do the live show twice, at 11:30 ET and 11:30 PT, which would be a real pain in the neck for them.
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broadcast it once live, 11:30 PT/2:30 am ET (and show nothing at 11:30 on the East Coast?), or
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do what they did.
That’s what they did in the glory days of live radio. In fact, for a few years the Today show did two hours for the east coast. The Midwest only got the second hour, then the show did another hour - live - which was broadcast as the second hour in the Midwest.
Yes, but only because there was no other option. Once videotape was invented, and the coaxial cable connected both coasts, such repeat performances (which were far more troublesome for dramatic or comedy programs than a news show) were a thing of the past.