Saturday, November 1, 2014

Daylight Savings time ends; TV schedules hardest hit

And so we reach that twice a year bane to people trying to figure out what time something is coming on TV: the one-hour change for the beginning or end of Daylight Savings time. Overnight tonight at 3:00 AM, the time goes back to 2:00 AM, although for the vast majority of people they'll just put their clocks back an hour before going to bed. Still, it requires paying closer attention to the night's TV schedules.

In the case of TCM, it's not too difficult this time. They've got a night of movies based on lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet in the normal Saturday night primetime slot leading up to TCM Underground. The last of those, North By Northwest, starts at 11:45 PM, leading into the TCM Underground lineup starting at the first 2:15 AM with Bone. Bone runs 95 minutes, which would take it past the first 2:59 AM, back to the second 2:00 AM, and then ending at the second 2:50 AM. The TCM daily schedule gets this a bit wrong, having a short -- 1950's The MGM Story -- starting at 3:58 AM when it really should be the second 2:58 AM. The error should be obvious, though, since the following feature, Wait Until Dark, begins at 4:00 AM. As The MGM Story runs 57 minutes, it's easy to deduce that The MGM Story will pretty much be taking up the entire 3:00 AM-4:00 AM hour

FXM's schedule is a bit more challenging, since the schedule on their website sucks so badly. I use other listings sources for them, which have the 2004 White Chicks beginning at 1:00 AM, on the FXM part of the schedule that still has commercials. That movie is 109 minutes, but I have no idea how many commercials get added. There's an "FXM Presents" beginning at 2:15 AM, which would logically be the second 2:15 AM, putting a 109-minute film into a 135-minute time slot. Following FXM Presents, at the second 2:30, is The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw.

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