NFL- Why one late game at 4:05 kickoff time?

The Game Room
1

I just noticed that each week the NFL schedules only one late game to kickoff at 4:05 EST while the rest of the late games start at 4:15 EST. Why?

2

I’m guessing those are west coast games.

EDIT: On closer inspection, it’s not always just one. Based on which games are slated for 4:05, my conclusion is that the 4:05 games are not part of network doubleheaders, so there is no reason to delay them until 4:15.

3

Keep in mind that the national broadcast games are at 4:15pm, which is the doubleheader for everyone in the country except the local markets of other games going on.

That’s one of the reasons why most games are scheduled at 1:00pm. The other being that there are more teams in the Eastern/Central time zones than there are in Western/Mountain. Actually, I probably have that backwards. I would imagine that the fewer late games due to time zones makes the late game timeslot ideal for the national broadcast.

4

So I can watch a good football game after watching the Lions lose. Quick ,make it go away.

5

I looked the other day when you first posted and could only find this. It mentions the 4:05s and gives a little info but not sure if it provides any definitive “why.”

6

It says one network gets a double header with a 1:00 and a 4:15 and the other network gets only one game at either 1:00 or 4:05.

So, I guess the 4:15 takes into account a bit of a delay to get the first game of the double header out of the way. There’s no reason to delay on the single header network, so they start at 4:05.

In other words, what Ellis Dee said.