I never really thought about this question until recently, but it is beginning to bother me. I live in the Central timezone. All (national) TV programs I see advertised only tell the Eastern time and the Central time that they will be on. (like "Watch XXXX, at 9:30, 8:30 central") My question is what time are these shows on in the Pacific and Mountian timezones? For referrence, lets use Late Night with Conan O'Brien. For me (Central time), the show comes on at 11:35 PM, and it comes on at 12:35 AM in the Eastern timezone. This means that the people on the East coast and the people in the Central timezone are watching the show simultaneously. But what time is it on in the other two timezones? Is it on at 9:35 PM and 10:35 PM? (for Pacific and Mountain times respectively). Or do they push it back an hour, so its actually being broadcast an hour later than the other two timezones? I know I probably sound like an ignorant fool asking this, but I guess I have just never thought of it, and I don't travel much. Thanks for any help.

i can't answer for the pacific time zone, but i was in mountain time zone for about a week last year, and the primetime shows came on at 7pm MT. So i guess that means conan would've come on at 11:30 MT.

My understanding is that prime time in the Eastern and Pacific is 8:00pm-11:00pm and it's 7:00pm-10:00pm in the Central and Mountain.

11:00pm is past our bedtime in the middle of the country.

I spent a summer in Denver a few years ago. Primetime in the Mountain zone is considered 7-10. Conan would be on at 11:30 MT (so that is 1:30 ET). Therefore, they see it an hour after people in the East and Central zones see it.

What about the people living in the Atlantic Time Zone like in New Brunswick? Their prime time is from 9:00-12:00. And the living in Newfoundland are only 4.5 hours behind London time; their primetime is 9:30-12:30. Yeesh!

But what happens in Hawaii and far-western parts of Alaska?

The US stations wouldn't worry about Atlantic time zone; however, loyal Canadians would only watch the ever exciting CBC, anyway. I would guess CBC could run the tape early in Atlantic and New Foundland time zones if that is what the market requires, but I don't really know.

You understand exactly right. Given the time zones, that means Eastern/Central is simultaneous broadcast, with Mountain on one hour delay relative to Eastern, and Pacific on three hour delay. I prefer the earlier schedule and wish Eastern would use it.

Yep - here on the west coast we have a three hour delay. But with Dish I have both east and west feeds, so I see things either simultaneously with the east coast (5pm - 8pm prime time essentially) or with the rest of the west coast (8pm - 11pm prime time). I happen to love this dual coast thing with staggered broadcasts - makes time shifting my shows that much easier.