# The Heidi game and broadcast TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2017, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034 "2017-09-11T00:13:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/21 "2017-09-11T03:13:20Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > And have you ever tried to record something on a DVR that was scheduled for after a football game than ran over? I have, and it’s not pretty. Because the show scheduled at 7:00 starts at some point after 7 so I have to set up the DVR to continue recording for some predetermined amount of time after the scheduled ending - and hopefully I chose enough time. Depending on what I want to record that night, I could end up with the first half of a show on one recording and the second half on another. . . . Life is really, really hard. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/22 "2017-09-11T11:26:03Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Speaking of advertising; one **Heidi** was being sponsored by Times (meaning every ad aired would be one of theirs) and NBC signed an iron-clad contract w/ them to start the movie on time & not interrupt for anything short of a national emergency. NBC would’ve had major lawsuit for breach of contract if they stayed with the game (which admittedly senior executives did decide to do at the last minute, but there was a communication breakdown). What is, or was, Times? These days the networks pay enormous rights fees for the NFL. Dwarfs what they pay Macfarlane for his dreck. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/23 "2017-09-11T12:14:27Z")
> [@Fleetwood](#): > > What is, or was, Times? > > These days the networks pay enormous rights fees for the NFL. Dwarfs what they pay Macfarlane for his dreck. I believe it was Timex, the watch company that sponsored the movie. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/24 "2017-09-11T12:18:02Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > And have you ever tried to record something on a DVR that was scheduled for after a football game than ran over? I have, and it’s not pretty. Because the show scheduled at 7:00 starts at some point after 7 so I have to set up the DVR to continue recording for some predetermined amount of time after the scheduled ending - and hopefully I chose enough time. Depending on what I want to record that night, I could end up with the first half of a show on one recording and the second half on another. > > The right decision would be to schedule the damn football game for a four hour block and fill in the extra time with some combination of post-game talk/random sitcom rerun depending on how much time is left between when the game actually ends and the end of the four-hour block. > > And they still cut off football games- when there are two games scheduled on the same network and the early one runs late, they don’t show both simultaneously They either cut off the end of the first one or join the second in progress. Well, I just tell my Tivo brand DVR to add extra time to the end of the recording. As I did for this case. Seeing that show was airing in a slot right after Sunday football games, I padded it by an hour. This is a feature that is standard on my DVR, is it not on yours? And that is why I have a Tivo and not the cable company box. Every fall we get the same grumbling about why don’t they schedule it this way or that. The answer is that the NFL is multi-billion dollar industry and it is THE programming FOX, CBS, NBC, and ESPN care about on those days when they are airing it. Case in point, The Orville is airing on Sundays for two weeks only before moving to its regular day and time. \ No, you won’t have to put up with this much longer. Of course, this is a science fiction show on Fox, so it will be cancelled by the third episode anyways. Regardless of its quality. I haven’t watched it yet, was finishing a season of the British Bakeoff from three years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/25 "2017-09-11T13:36:09Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I believe it was Timex, the watch company that sponsored the movie. > Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Thanks. Didn’t consider Timex. Only could come up witj Time Magazine or one of the many Xxxx Times newspapers. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/26 "2017-09-11T14:21:16Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Of course I have. I just adjust how I watch. It’s fairly evident that the point of the OP wasn’t to describe the situation as an insoluble problem, but to vent at being made to adjust to the whims of football’s special snowflakes. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/27 "2017-09-11T15:21:03Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > What I do not understand is why a game that is to be played in four fifteen minute quarters can sometimes take **four hours** to play. Assuming that the OP cares to hear a rebuttal… NFL games very, very rarely take more than 3 1/2 hours to complete, and it’s usually more like 3 hours to 3 1/4 hours. The major exception to this is the Super Bowl, which is more like 4+ hours, though that’s due to a longer-than-average halftime show, as well as an excessive amount of general hoopla. It used to be (30 years ago or so) that a game would nearly always be completed in 3 hours or less. There are two big reasons why games last a little longer these days: - More commercial time - Teams pass more than they used to, and incomplete passes stop the clock If a game goes to overtime, it’ll, of course, last longer. As overtime is “sudden death,” overtime can wind up only adding a few minutes to the overall length of a game (if, for example, the overtime kickoff is returned for a touchdown), or as much as a half-hour or more (if overtime takes most, or even all, of the additional 15-minute period). The other thing that can add length to a game is injuries. If a player is seriously injured during a play (particularly if it’s a head or neck injury), it can take the medical team some time to get the player stabilized and transport them off the field. I’ve seen injury delays take 10 minutes or more. And, finally, while it’s very uncommon, severe weather (i.e., severe thunderstorms) can force a game delay. They’ll play through rain, snow, fog, etc., but if there is severe lightning in the area, or tornadoes, they’ll clear the field and ask the fans to move to sheltered areas. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/28 "2017-09-11T17:26:41Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I believe it was Timex, the watch company that sponsored the movie. Given the sponsor, I guess starting on time was very important. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/29 "2017-09-11T17:35:39Z")
When I was a non-football-loving preteen, I was often pissed off when long-running games encroached on the local syndicated broadcast of _Star Trek_ and I would hear that maddening announcement, “We now join our regularly-scheduled broadcast already in progress.” Far too often I’d miss the first five, ten or even twenty minutes of the show that way. Classic jock vs. nerd feud! ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/30 "2017-09-11T18:27:44Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > So, here we are again. It looks like we scraped by on Fox and we have a shot at watching the premiere of the new show “The Orville” on time. I am sure that in the future, if it remains in the same time slot, that over running football games will derail it often. Only the first two episodes will air on Sunday nights; starting on 9/21, the show will air Thursdays at 9 Eastern, after _Bat-Kid_ - er, _Gotham_. > [@Lance\_Turbo](#): > > This thread is silly. > > The game started at 4:25 and the Orville was scheduled for 8:00. This is not a three hour time slot. The game ended early and they filled the extra time with fifteen minutes of post game talk. The Orville aired at the exact time it was scheduled. Exactly. Who wants a history lesson of The NFL on Fox? Up through 2000 or so, the late games of doubleheaders started at 4:05 Eastern. Fox assumed that games would run three hours, and scheduled new episodes of _Futurama_ at 7:00 Eastern, only to discover that, pretty much every time, the NFL coverage would run until 7:15 or so (because when a game ends, Fox then cuts over to a game still in progress until all of its late games are done), and, in a few cases, ran past 7:30, resulting in the episode being pre-empted (and Fox having to dig up a repeat to air in the Pacific time zone three hours later). Fox (and CBS, I think) asked that the late games be moved to 4:15 start times, and the NFL agreed, so Fox would not schedule anything at 7:00 on its doubleheader days. The problem was, more often than not, Fox’s coverage would run past 7:30, resulting in its 7:30 show - _King of the Hill_ - being joined in progress out east. There are two notable examples: a Thanksgiving episode was shelved for an entire year because coverage ran until 8:00 that night (and Fox didn’t want to air a Thanksgiving episode after Thanksgiving - the same Fox that regularly aired Simpsons Halloween Specials in November, mind you), and a Christmas episode had only its last five minutes air (and, at first, Fox said, “Well, we aired it in its entirety out west, so we have no plans to air it again,” but so many people complained that Fox pulled a repeat of another Christmas special to air it again just before Christmas). Eventually, Fox got tired of this, and decided to start its post-game show (The O.T.), which would fill the time slot until 8:00. At first, Fox aired repeats (and first-run episodes of _'Til Death_ that it wanted to burn off) in the west, but then decided to give the hour back to the local stations. There have been very few times when Fox’s coverage has gone past 8:00, even when the start times of the late games were moved to 4:25. CBS, on the other hand, has gotten to the point where it sends out tweets saying that its NFL coverage has ended and _60 Minutes_ is about to start… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/31 "2017-09-11T18:52:35Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > When I was a non-football-loving preteen, I was often pissed off when long-running games encroached on the local syndicated broadcast of _Star Trek_ and I would hear that maddening announcement, “We now join our regularly-scheduled broadcast already in progress.” Far too often I’d miss the first five, ten or even twenty minutes of the show that way. Classic jock vs. nerd feud! Back when I lived in Denver, the local station that carried _Deep Space Nine_ also carried Colorado Rockies and Colorado Avalanche games. There was always a preemption of one kind of another. ---
**Author:** ![Reluctant\_A](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Reluctant\_A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reluctant_A)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/32 "2017-09-17T06:46:17Z")
The OP is basically this meme: [http://1.bp.blogspot.com/\_XgeYLAgHiyA/TNogaxTPM6I/AAAAAAAAAKs/yTF9P8mYGLw/s640/stop.jpg](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XgeYLAgHiyA/TNogaxTPM6I/AAAAAAAAAKs/yTF9P8mYGLw/s640/stop.jpg) I mean, I have empathy, as someone who similarly loathes football, but there’s a lot of butthurt in that, and the OP’s subsequent posts… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/33 "2017-09-17T08:05:41Z")
I hate…hate…hate football!! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/34 "2017-09-17T09:04:47Z")
You don’t get the point. You seem to think that football is a game played for its own sake, and TV provides coverage of it. Not so. TV exists for its own sake, has a voracious need for programs, and the NFL has a contract to provide the talent for some of them. Games begin when TV has a slot to fill, (six slots per week) and cues the players/actors. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/35 "2017-09-17T10:36:28Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > It doesn’t. Television is a business, though. Yabbut, football is only a _game_… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/36 "2017-09-17T10:52:59Z")
What they _should_ do is schedule the games from 0200 - 0530. That way they’re only potentially preemptinhg infomercials. Also, the people going to the game aren’t jamming up the freeways for the regular people. Win-win, amiright? ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/37 "2017-09-18T00:21:30Z")
Here’s a stupid question that people could probably clear up quickly for me. Why not pre-empt football for the show that’s scheduled? If there’s a weather delay, they would hold the game. So let the game keep going, filming it as it goes, edit in any commercials and commentary they like under no pressure, then show the tape after regularly scheduled program. People don’t mind staying up for hours to watch the end of a baseball game, so they’d be glad to see it – or would it be confusing to break the stream of the game like that? Are they afraid people seeing it live are going to spoil it for the home viewers? Or did we somehow promise absolutely live streamed football? Its…its probably that last one, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/38 "2017-09-18T00:34:43Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > Here’s a stupid question that people could probably clear up quickly for me. Why not pre-empt football for the show that’s scheduled? If there’s a weather delay, they would hold the game. So let the game keep going, filming it as it goes, edit in any commercials and commentary they like under no pressure, then show the tape after regularly scheduled program. People don’t mind staying up for hours to watch the end of a baseball game, so they’d be glad to see it – or would it be confusing to break the stream of the game like that? Are they afraid people seeing it live are going to spoil it for the home viewers? Or did we somehow promise absolutely live streamed football? Its…its probably that last one, isn’t it? Generally speaking, sports broadcasts (at least of the major sports, on U.S. network TV) are only ever carried live. Yes, people will stay up late to watch the end of a late-running game…but that is still _live_. Once the game has actually occurred, you can go to any sports-news web site and see the result and the highlights…and the fact that the game itself then loses its immediacy will almost undoubtedly cost it viewership. Also, parenthetically, Fox is, at this very minute, in a “Heidi” situation. Their “Game of the Week” (the 4:25 ET start game) between Dallas and Denver was delayed for an hour during the first quarter, due to a severe thunderstorm (incidentally, one of the causes for a very long game that I named earlier in the thread). It’s now 8:33pm, and they just had the 2-minue warning in the fourth quarter…thus, they’ve already run a half-hour past the original time slot (which was, itself, padded with a post-game show). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/39 "2017-09-18T00:36:03Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > Here’s a stupid question that people could probably clear up quickly for me. Why not pre-empt football for the show that’s scheduled? If there’s a weather delay, they would hold the game. So let the game keep going, filming it as it goes, edit in any commercials and commentary they like under no pressure, then show the tape after regularly scheduled program. People don’t mind staying up for hours to watch the end of a baseball game, so they’d be glad to see it – or would it be confusing to break the stream of the game like that? Are they afraid people seeing it live are going to spoil it for the home viewers? Or did we somehow promise absolutely live streamed football? Its…its probably that last one, isn’t it? It’s an event that’s happening real time. For most people, they will lose interest if they know that the actual events have already passed and the result is known. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034/40 "2017-09-18T02:42:30Z")
I’m not sure some people in this thread realize that live sports is what is keeping broadcast TV afloat. Scripted shows get streamed and/or pirated but you have to sit and watch TV to watch live sports. And also, as some TV exec once said (I forget who and I am paraphrasing): Sports is the perfect TV show because absolutely no one knows how it ends. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-heidi-game-and-broadcast-tv/796034.md?page=3)