Late List
- Published by David Knox
- on
“7:30 means 7:30 not 7:38!”
Tired of your favourite TV show starting late? Now you can name and shame them.
TV Tonight‘s Late List will use crowd-sourcing to detail the shows and the networks that never stick to the clock.
Just enter the information into the fields below with as much info as possible.
In the section marked “Advertised Time” you should complete at least ONE field:
- the time it was advertised in an on-screen Electronic Program Guide
- the time it was published in a Print guide such as newspaper or magazine
- the time it was listed in an Online guide (website / App)
- or the time you saw it advertised in a Promo that ran on the network itself.
This info will be tallied for results which will be published later.
Once you have submitted an entry, you are also invited to leave a Comment below.
The Late List will run as a site trial until the end of the ratings year with a view to remaining a site feature if it proves successful.
2012:
Late List results: Sept 23- 29Â
Late List results: Sept 30 – Oct 6
Late List results: Oct 7 – 13
Late List results: Oct 14-20
Late List results: Oct 21 – Oct 27
Late List results: Oct 28 – Nov 3
Late List results: Nov 4 – Nov 10
Late List results: Nov 11 – Nov 17
Late List results: Nov 11 – Nov 18
Late List results: December
2013:
Late List results: January
Late List results: February
Late List results: March
Late List results: April
Late List results: May
Late List results: June
Late List results: July
Late List results: August
Late List results: September
Late List results: October
Late List results: November
Late List results: December / January
2014:
Late List results: February
Late List results: March
Late List results: April
Late List results: May
Late List results: June
Late List results: July
Late List results: August
Late List results: September / October
* mandatory.
129 Responses
Apart from miss timed starts how about a thread regarding re-editing shows (its all too common).
Case in point the new series of New Girl (10) is only 20 minutes but its a minute (ie 5%) shorter than the US broadcast (even after adjustment for FPS). A nip and tuck here and there.
No doubt this is simply to meet the demands of local advertising and endless programming advertising (This can be cut).
Do these FTA stations not understand what p…..s the audiance off.
Start on Time,
Broadcast consistant Time and Day,
Show close to USA schedule,
Complete the series, and
Don’t edit the episodes.
Getting a bit tired of 9 ‘merging’ the two episodes of Episodes in their EPG, late on the day of broadcast. Plays merry hell with some equipment.
I can see no reason for them to do it either, one can only assume they do it for nefarious (or malicious) reasons.
7’s advertised time for Suits (having moved this terrific show further and further back on Monday night) in the Age Green Guide was 11.00. EPG time closer to the event – 12.15am!!
Why would you run 2 eps of Up All Night instead of Suits???
Needless to say I watched nothing on 7 on 1/10.
And looking at tonight, Smash advertised for 10.45. Yeah, right.
@JB
In Sydney, the EPG time for New Girl was correct, and it was only 3 minutes after the print advertised time of 7:30pm. It was the most on-time of all commercial shows last night!
Underbelly Final – the one time it starts on time and I switch over 1 minute late from Mythbusters LOL Well At least they have an encore next Sunday night, I’ll set the PVR this time.
Goodbye Ch 10. I’m no longer a viewer of any of your shows. I did the right thing. Ten were fast tracking New Girl and Hawaii Five 0 so i did right by Ten, I waited a week to watch them air on Ten. New Girl started late, and Hawaii Five 0 started 10 minutes late. I won’t bother watching on Ten now and will get my shows elsewhere. I’m thinking i might just not bother with NCIS or Homeland either because they will no doubt start late. Sorry Ten, gave you another chance and you just disappointed me again. You haven’t learnt a thing, so stuff ya.
Tonights 60 Min was extra late, Nine had pushed back the start time to 7:45 but it started about 10 min later, with no update to the EPG or online guide… I know it was the NRL grand final but why not just have it starting at 8pm?
Secret Squirrel, I watch the seconds tick by every night at 7pm when the ABC news starts to check my DVR’s time is correct!!
One small caveat with this is that people’s clocks need to be correct if we are measuring things at the minute level (“minn-et” not “my-newt” altho’ that works too).
I’m only relying on PC/laptop/tablet which are updated by an internet time server once a week. I don’t think mobile phones are reliable (unless you ring the speaking clock). Mine is 1¼ min slow right now.
Also my set-top box is not entirely accurate either. The time it displays is sync’d with whichever channel it is on. Currently it differs by a minute across the main channels. I assume this will also be true for tuners built-in to digital TVs.
Something to bear in mind…
just submitted a report 😉 just catching up on some shows on the TIVO – on 12 September Criminal Minds ran 22 minutes late – thanks for nothing X-Factor!!!! even with an extra 15 mins on record time, the end of Criminal Minds was still cut off. The only saving grace was that we were recording Covert Affairs following Criminal Minds. Covert Affairs started 21 minutes late – will submit another entry when we watch Covert Affairs and see if we lost the end of that one too!
According to my EPG Hustle tonight was meant to begin at 9-05pm, as on the ABC Online Guide and in the newspaper. It actually started 4 1/2 minutes early, 9-00:28. Luckily I added 5 minutes to the start, I don’t normally bother with the ABC. I will in future. I noticed after Hustle started that the EPG had changed showing Hustle staring at 900pm.
I heard a Nine promo last night for a show starting at “7.40 on Nine”. Have never seen them do that before – Maybe this list is having a effect!!!
Ha, good to hear. While viewers prefer the half hour start, the bigger problem is mis-information. Viewers will tolerate a time like that if the EPG, Guides, Promos are accurate. Nobody complains about Q&A being 9:35. So well done if Nine is moving on this.
@Pertinax
From numerous discussions with them in the past…
According to the ACMA, the stations are supposed to provide an *accurate* EPG 7 days in advance. In practice, the ACMA are generally happy as long as the EPG is accurate for the following complete day.
As we know, very few stations even achieve that. 10’s is inaccurate from Sat-Mon every week. 9 pretend to have an accurate EPG a day or so in advance, but have a habit of adjusting theirs within hours of airtime. 7 are not making their accurate on any kind of regular basis, some days it is, some it isn’t, however even when it is, the accuracy ends at midnight, which only compounds the fact that later in the evening shows always run further overtime.
Agreed Pertinax, until the networks are forced by regulations they simply will not change.
But maybe this exercise could be used as a reason for the government to bring in those regulations.
What about shows that are listed in the Foxtel EPG and online guides (yourtv.com.au) as airing but don’t?
I very much doubt very many people are interested in the SANFL, but the ABC had a replay of both SANFL Semi-Finals scheduled in Melbourne this morning starting at 1.28am and ending at 6am. Instead of the SANFL between 1.30 and 6am they aired the last 20 minutes of Eddie Perfect, 2 hours of the Jewel in the Crown which was followed by a Shirley Temple movie.
But when does the ACMA measure EPG times?
Probably at the start of the programme so the networks can get away with not updating them till the last minute so their rivals and consumers don’t get useful information.
Covert Affairs was in the EPG for 9:30pm. It was at 7pm that that was updated to 9:51pm. It was then changed to 9:49pm just before the show started at 9:47pm.
I set up the record while it was 9:51pm with a 5 minute buffer, so I got the start with one minute to spare.
Unless the ACMA is given regulations and starts enforcing them nothing is going to change is it. Other countries have regulated start times.
This exercise, while fun, will achieve nothing.
The networks benefit, at least in the short term, from manipulating the system. It will only get worse as they are forced to try and outdo each other. You can bet Channel 9 will not be so restrained next year with The Voice and and will try to do to Seven what Seven has done to them with The X Factor.
This week I will watch Call The Midwife, Good Game, Archer, The Bridge, Gruen Planet and Doctor Who. Everything on commercial TV will be recorded with 5 minutes on the front and up to an hour on the back.
Never use my EPG and do not think that it should be the standard which is used to measure accuracy of broadcast times.
There is absolutely no reason why stations should not know the length of a pre-recorded show days in advance of its screening. The over-running of show times of pre-recorded “reality” shows is becoming ridiculous.
I’m hoping ACMA will eventually start fining the networks to prevent them from running late. There’s no incentive to run on time at the moment, except keeping the viewers happy.
ACMA will only monitor EPG accuracy. It doesn’t make them start on the half hour etc.
I have submitted some data for programmes on my HDR.
The EPG time I am giving is the one that was there when I set up my HDR in the evening. Channel 9 often move programmes by a couple of minutes later (usually later but occasionally earlier), but I didn’t see those.
Interestingly Channel 7 moved Smash from 9:30pm to 9:36pm early in the evening implying they had some idea when they were intending to finish, but that was way off.
Should we just assume that anything after an X Factor live episode will be nearly 30 minutes late?
Ten don’t seem to be updating the DTV EPG for late night shows on One or 11. Better Off Ted started around 8 minutes early a fortnight ago and they aren’t changing Wilfred from 10:30pm to its actual start time either.
Channel 7 often don’t update the finishing time for shows that finish at midnight either. 30 Rock often used to be listed from 11:38 – 12:00 when it was running till around 12:04am.
Can we list early shows as well?
Last night Ferguson on SC10 started more than 5 minutes early, I don’t have exact times as I only set my PVR to add 5 min to the start. This is weird considering it was right after the Emmy’s which usually run long.
Yes.
The F1 was 8 minutes late last night and because of safety cars ran over by 30 minutes… I guess that’s out of TENs control though LOL
18 minutes late
10’s EPG now shows Wilfred as starting at 22:30 on 11, though on Southern Cross 10 it’s shown as starting at 22:36 on 55. From prior experience I can say that 10’s EPG is sporked Sat-Mon, so it amuses me that a regional can actually get this right.