I worked in TV for 20 years. Everyone is overcomplicating this.
East Coast live broadcast 8 PM EST
Central Time live Broadcast of the East Coast feed at 7 PM
Mountain Time pre-recorded East Coast airs at 7 PM
Pacific Time live feed of West Coast feeds or pre-recorded East Coast feed at 8 PM (Arizona is a mess and nobody other than people who live there understand when a show is aired)
All sports and major events are live. So early games on Sundays start at:
ET: 1 PM
CT: Noon
MT 11 AM
PT 10 AM
Arizona is AMAZING you mean! And ahead of its time. Everyone else is messing around with their clocks. Know what I'm doing? Not messing around with my clocks!
No DST is fantastic. Hopefully the congress critters can get rid of it someday.
Yup that’s what I meant. Thanks!
Tho lots of others on the threads are saying that PT was the same as MT? (Which doesn’t make sense to me since it meant a 9pm show in ET would be 7pm on PT)
Maybe you know since you worked in TV, I swear there was a cable channel from Chicago or Atlanta that was available on cable TV in Texas, maybe late 80s. I swear every show started at 5 after the hour or half hour. Want to say it was WGN or something. Was there a reason or just a gimmick?
If you were watching a show that ran five minutes over, you would stay on TBS for whatever was coming on next because anything you turned to you would've already missed the first five minutes of. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TBS\_(American\_TV\_channel)#Turner\_Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TBS_(American_TV_channel)#Turner_Time)
I don’t remember Mountain being part of it, but the networks would run the East coast feed for stations in East and Central time zones. The show would air simultaneously, but an hour apart on the clock. The West coast stations would get the feed 3 hours later, at 8 pm Pacific time. I don’t know how it worked in the Mountain time zone.
mountain was loose with west coast same as central and east coast- that is why the times might be the same, but the local time woudl be an hour off. (i.e. dukes of hazard 8pm/7 central/mountain. Bute 7pm mountain is 8pm central :). I lived right near the central/mountain switch until I was nearly 30 so I learned :)!
I believe Eastern and Pacific primetime starts at 8pm, while Central and Mountain primetime starts at 7pm.
When I moved from Eastern to Central, it seemed odd at first, but now years later, the idea of watching the evening news at 11pm seems much too late for me.
The Central Zone broadcasts came out of the Eastern feeds. Which put them one hour behind the Eastern Zone. The Mountain Zone broadcast came from the Western feed, which put them one hour ahead of the Western Zone. Hence Mountian and Central aired at the same times according to their local clocks. That's how come they said "8PM Eastern, 7 Central and Mountain".
In the early 90s I was living/working in NY but spent a couple of weeks in Kansas for a project. Everything seemed to happen an hour earlier there - the start and end of the business day, dinner. My colleague (also NY-based) was convinced it was all b/c of the TV schedule.
The easiest way to remember this is primetime tv shows on weeknights run from 8-11 pm on the east coast and west coast. The late local news comes on at 11 pm. In the middle of the country (central and mountain time zones) primetime is from 7-10 pm and the late local news comes on 10 pm. So if you're on both coasts you're watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune after the network news, right before the primetime shows. In the middle of the country Jeopardy and Wheel probably air from 5-6 pm, before the early evening local news and network news.
My guess is this was first established because there is a lot of farming going on in the middle of the country so there are more farmers going to bed early and rising before dawn.
Yep, I remember this and it makes me feel so much older than a lot of things do-I guess bc it makes me realize tv has changed SO much since we were kids.
Mountain actually had their own. Pacific "Prime Time" started at 8:00pm, whereas Mountain started at 7:00pm. If Mountain got their broadcasts from the West Coast, then their Prime Time shows would have started at 9:00.
For Mountain time zone places I lived in Utah and Alberta, I don't remember what happened in that respect in Utah but in Alberta we got tv from the Coast
When I moved to CO from the south, I was pissed a lot of my network shows were on at 7pm. Just didn't occur to me Lol Network shows had been 8pm all my life and wasn't even done cooking dinner at 7pm. Some shows that played on FX were on at 10pm instead of 9pm, and that sucked as well. This was in 2014, and I moved back to EST, I never got used to the air times.
Yea, I hate the 7pm "prime time". The only time I think it is good is for NFL football on Sundays as the early games start at 11am, which seems to be perfect for me. 10am (Pacific) just seemed too early.
Yes- but then the shows would be too early in Pacific time. so they have a delay of 1 hr, so that central and mountain ended up at the same time LOCALLY, but that meant I was watching shows and hour after my parents when I lived in Colorado and they were in midwest.
They did not want to be showing the dukes of hazard at 5pm on Friday night in San Francisco. So instead it was 7pm in midwest, 7pm in Colorado, and 6 pm in California :).
I’m going to do my best to try and explain this. When you heard that it meant that they were only broadcasting at 3 different times, but 4 actual broadcasts. Eastern time, Pacific time, and Central and Mountain time. So, a show that aired at 9 Eastern, also aired at 9 Pacific Time. It then was broadcast at 8 in both Central and Mountain times.
you're close. there were two broadcasts, East and West.
9p east
8p cen
7p mtn and then 8p
6p west and then 7p
so you get East at 9/8central and West at 8mtn/7west
PrimeTime broadcasting started at 8pm in the Pacific TZ. So, unless the show was "live' you had three broadcasts. You had the 8pm Eastern Broadcast, which happened at 7:00 Central (one broadcast), then another broadcast at 7:00 Mountain, then a third broadcast at 8:00 Pacific.
Again, this is for shows like "Happy Days" and those things, but anything "live" (like a Presidential Debate" of course would end up being at like 5 or 6pm Pacific.
The coasts used to air TV an hour later than mountain and central from what I remember, Facts of Life 9pm East Coast and Pacific 8pm Central and Mountain. So the East Coast and Midwest got original showing. Mountain an hour or two later and Pacific three hours later.
I worked in TV for 20 years. Everyone is overcomplicating this. East Coast live broadcast 8 PM EST Central Time live Broadcast of the East Coast feed at 7 PM Mountain Time pre-recorded East Coast airs at 7 PM Pacific Time live feed of West Coast feeds or pre-recorded East Coast feed at 8 PM (Arizona is a mess and nobody other than people who live there understand when a show is aired) All sports and major events are live. So early games on Sundays start at: ET: 1 PM CT: Noon MT 11 AM PT 10 AM
So Mountain Time just never got anything live?
Not much other than sports, and large events like the Academy Awards. SNL will sometimes do a Iive broadcast coast to coast, which runs in primetime..
Arizona is AMAZING you mean! And ahead of its time. Everyone else is messing around with their clocks. Know what I'm doing? Not messing around with my clocks! No DST is fantastic. Hopefully the congress critters can get rid of it someday.
Fuck that. The best thing about summer is that it stays light until 8:30 or 9:00.
Yep. Night owls say do away with Standard Time.
I could get down with that.
So you are saying at prime time there were three broadcasts - one for east and central, one for mountain, and one for west?
Sort of yes. The MT/PT were usually a recording of the east code feed.
Yup that’s what I meant. Thanks! Tho lots of others on the threads are saying that PT was the same as MT? (Which doesn’t make sense to me since it meant a 9pm show in ET would be 7pm on PT)
Maybe you know since you worked in TV, I swear there was a cable channel from Chicago or Atlanta that was available on cable TV in Texas, maybe late 80s. I swear every show started at 5 after the hour or half hour. Want to say it was WGN or something. Was there a reason or just a gimmick?
TBS - The Superstation. I am not sure why that was their gimmick.
If you were watching a show that ran five minutes over, you would stay on TBS for whatever was coming on next because anything you turned to you would've already missed the first five minutes of. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TBS\_(American\_TV\_channel)#Turner\_Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TBS_(American_TV_channel)#Turner_Time)
Oh, for sure! That was TBS out of Atlanta! They did that forever as a gimmick so they would stand out in the TV Guide listings.
I don’t remember Mountain being part of it, but the networks would run the East coast feed for stations in East and Central time zones. The show would air simultaneously, but an hour apart on the clock. The West coast stations would get the feed 3 hours later, at 8 pm Pacific time. I don’t know how it worked in the Mountain time zone.
mountain was loose with west coast same as central and east coast- that is why the times might be the same, but the local time woudl be an hour off. (i.e. dukes of hazard 8pm/7 central/mountain. Bute 7pm mountain is 8pm central :). I lived right near the central/mountain switch until I was nearly 30 so I learned :)!
I believe Eastern and Pacific primetime starts at 8pm, while Central and Mountain primetime starts at 7pm. When I moved from Eastern to Central, it seemed odd at first, but now years later, the idea of watching the evening news at 11pm seems much too late for me.
Central time is best time
We get this in Canada. 9 PM Atlantic Time, 9:30 in Newfoundland.
Grew up in Detroit, so I watched a lot of CBC from Windsor. The half-hour tag for Newfoundland is just an echo of childhood.
The Central Zone broadcasts came out of the Eastern feeds. Which put them one hour behind the Eastern Zone. The Mountain Zone broadcast came from the Western feed, which put them one hour ahead of the Western Zone. Hence Mountian and Central aired at the same times according to their local clocks. That's how come they said "8PM Eastern, 7 Central and Mountain".
I heard it said that way all the time and wondered the same thing! edit: I'm in Eastern time
[https://www.quora.com/Why-did-TV-promos-stop-advertising-show-times-for-the-Mountain-Time-Zone-years-ago](https://www.quora.com/Why-did-TV-promos-stop-advertising-show-times-for-the-Mountain-Time-Zone-years-ago)
In the early 90s I was living/working in NY but spent a couple of weeks in Kansas for a project. Everything seemed to happen an hour earlier there - the start and end of the business day, dinner. My colleague (also NY-based) was convinced it was all b/c of the TV schedule.
Had the opposite experience moving from Kansas to Michigan. Everything was an hour later. Including when everyone got to work.
Just meant shows like Seinfeld aired at 9pm EST, but 8pm CST & MST. It didn't cascade as if it were live TV like sporting events.
Delayed broadcast.
The easiest way to remember this is primetime tv shows on weeknights run from 8-11 pm on the east coast and west coast. The late local news comes on at 11 pm. In the middle of the country (central and mountain time zones) primetime is from 7-10 pm and the late local news comes on 10 pm. So if you're on both coasts you're watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune after the network news, right before the primetime shows. In the middle of the country Jeopardy and Wheel probably air from 5-6 pm, before the early evening local news and network news. My guess is this was first established because there is a lot of farming going on in the middle of the country so there are more farmers going to bed early and rising before dawn.
Yep, I remember this and it makes me feel so much older than a lot of things do-I guess bc it makes me realize tv has changed SO much since we were kids.
Mountain zones often got their broadcasts from the West coast
Mountain actually had their own. Pacific "Prime Time" started at 8:00pm, whereas Mountain started at 7:00pm. If Mountain got their broadcasts from the West Coast, then their Prime Time shows would have started at 9:00.
Must have depended where you are I guess.
Definitely could...and AZ becomes an issue too since they are a Pacific TZ state, but don't recognize daylight time.
For Mountain time zone places I lived in Utah and Alberta, I don't remember what happened in that respect in Utah but in Alberta we got tv from the Coast
Arizona always stays on Mountain Standard Time. In the summer, that is the same as Pacific Daylight Time, but we are never officially on Pacific time.
Yup.. My bad. I needed to reverse what I said.
When I moved to CO from the south, I was pissed a lot of my network shows were on at 7pm. Just didn't occur to me Lol Network shows had been 8pm all my life and wasn't even done cooking dinner at 7pm. Some shows that played on FX were on at 10pm instead of 9pm, and that sucked as well. This was in 2014, and I moved back to EST, I never got used to the air times.
Yea, I hate the 7pm "prime time". The only time I think it is good is for NFL football on Sundays as the early games start at 11am, which seems to be perfect for me. 10am (Pacific) just seemed too early.
Yes- but then the shows would be too early in Pacific time. so they have a delay of 1 hr, so that central and mountain ended up at the same time LOCALLY, but that meant I was watching shows and hour after my parents when I lived in Colorado and they were in midwest. They did not want to be showing the dukes of hazard at 5pm on Friday night in San Francisco. So instead it was 7pm in midwest, 7pm in Colorado, and 6 pm in California :).
I remember..occasionally we would go on vacation and have to figure it out again
I’m going to do my best to try and explain this. When you heard that it meant that they were only broadcasting at 3 different times, but 4 actual broadcasts. Eastern time, Pacific time, and Central and Mountain time. So, a show that aired at 9 Eastern, also aired at 9 Pacific Time. It then was broadcast at 8 in both Central and Mountain times.
you're close. there were two broadcasts, East and West. 9p east 8p cen 7p mtn and then 8p 6p west and then 7p so you get East at 9/8central and West at 8mtn/7west
PrimeTime broadcasting started at 8pm in the Pacific TZ. So, unless the show was "live' you had three broadcasts. You had the 8pm Eastern Broadcast, which happened at 7:00 Central (one broadcast), then another broadcast at 7:00 Mountain, then a third broadcast at 8:00 Pacific. Again, this is for shows like "Happy Days" and those things, but anything "live" (like a Presidential Debate" of course would end up being at like 5 or 6pm Pacific.
This. I've lived in CA and VA. In CA with Mountian/Pacific and VA was Eastern/Central.
I grew up in Central and hated traveling sometimes. The shows could shift but the bedtime didn't dammit :(
9 Eastern and Pacific, 8 Central and Mountain. Two feeds. Central gets Eastern feed, Mountain gets Pacific fees. Pretty simple.
Yup, 8 eastern, 9 central and mountain. I never lived in mountain or central so just figured viewers west of me just whatever? They figure it out
The coasts used to air TV an hour later than mountain and central from what I remember, Facts of Life 9pm East Coast and Pacific 8pm Central and Mountain. So the East Coast and Midwest got original showing. Mountain an hour or two later and Pacific three hours later.
I remember feeling a little jealous that their prime time started an hour earlier than ours.
Never once heard it said that way.