Time Zone Conundrum
Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 11:06 AM | Filed under complaint, mass media, mystery
It's a little after 11 o'clock in the morning, and I'm here to post something slightly disturbing I just saw on the Game Show Network. (I've also noticed this on QVC.)
Password Plus is next, but note what time it's scheduled for: 2:00 PM. Obviously, they mean Eastern Time. They also mention that it airs at 1:00 Central Time. Notice, however, that Pacific Time is not mentioned at all. What gives?! Why aren't they listing the airtime for our time zone? Since when is Central Time given more priority than Pacific Time (and Mountain too, I guess)?
Password Plus is next, but note what time it's scheduled for: 2:00 PM. Obviously, they mean Eastern Time. They also mention that it airs at 1:00 Central Time. Notice, however, that Pacific Time is not mentioned at all. What gives?! Why aren't they listing the airtime for our time zone? Since when is Central Time given more priority than Pacific Time (and Mountain too, I guess)?
What time does it actually air? Probably 2 PM Pacific. They mention Central time because they show everything an hour earlier in central land. Like Wheel of Fortune is on at 6 central time, where it's on at 7 here.
When they say 2PM/1C, they mean 2 PM for every time zone except central time.
Unless they're showing the east coast feed on the west coast, meaning the show airs at 11 AM. Then you can't really the network for it being weird.
No! It's just one national feed! Password Plus comes on only at 11 AM Pacific Time. At 2, Family Feud comes on. (Then Chain Reaction and Lingo after that.)
Shows come on "an hour earlier" in Central Time because they're getting the East Coast feed, and a show airing at noon Eastern Time comes on at 11 AM in the Central Time Zone. They watch the same show at the same time. Some national stations like TBS air two feeds for the different coasts.
It used to be that GSN would air one episode of a show (particularly a new one, during primetime) twice during the night, three hours apart, so that they could say "8 o'clock" and have it be correct for the Pacific and Eastern Zones. I don't think they do that anymore; I've stopped watching GSN as much since they started airing mostly poker and blackjack.
The point in my rant is that I know they're broadcasting only one feed, but I find it odd that they mention only the Eastern and Central Time Zones.
Yeah you're right. But Gameshow network and a few others are unusual that way. Most of the networks use a tape delay for Mountain and Pacific time zones.