September 15

In English TV I recently recognized abbreviations like "Tuesday 8/7c" or "New Episode Tonight 9/8c". What does that (numeric stuff at the end) mean?

From Germany, Markus Prokott (talk) 08:51, 15 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Surely you mean American TV? "c" is "central" and refers to the Central Time Zone. See the article Effects_of_time_zones_on_North_American_broadcasting#In_the_United_States. "8/7c" means that a programme starts at 8 o'clock in the Eastern Time Zone and (simultaneously) at 7 o'clock in the Central Time Zone. --Wrongfilter (talk) 11:43, 15 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I meant, it was some English(-speaking) TV from whereever. But as you depicted it, it should've been from one or more English-speaking American countries. (Or does it also occur in Latin-speaking America? I will read the article at that.)

Thanks for the explanation. Markus Prokott (talk) 12:03, 15 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Note also, as per the article Wrongfilter linked, that an "8/7c" show also typically starts at 8:00 in the Pacific Time Zone, so it can be read as "8:00 unless you are on Central Time". (The Mountain Time Zone has a relatively small population and scheduling in that zone varies.)

Here in Canada, we sometimes see (or used to see) shows advertised as "8:00, 8:30 in Newfoundland". They would be broadcast simultaneously at 8:00 Atlantic and 8:30 Newfoundland Time, and then rebroadcast at one-hour intervals at 8:00 in the Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific Times. --76.69.47.228 (talk) 01:46, 17 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"8:57.5 in St. Pierre and Miquelon". Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 01:56, 17 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I don't get this. Standard time in St Pierre and Miquelon is three hours behind Greenwich. When the clocks are showing nine a.m. a sundial shows a quarter past eight. Anyways, the linked article does not say that "an 8/7c show" starting at 8:00 Pacific "can be read as '8:00 unless you are on Central Time'". The statement may be true as far as it goes, but the further east you go the later the time by your clock. 2A00:23C1:CD83:1F01:D536:2A6C:D8F2:9746 (talk) 10:31, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

SMW forgot to link to

Poe's Law, which explains that when you make a facetious statement on the internet, most people will think you are serious. --Jayron32 19:19, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply

]

It depends, some things are like 5, 6, 7, 8 like live sports and I think the Oscars, some like sitcoms and reality TV are 8/7 Central and they probably say 8/9 Mountain or 8/9m cause those are delayed since having the typical schedule across the US simultaneously would be very inconvenient (a typical US Big 4 schedule is metro area news 6-6:30, world news 6:30-7,

reruns/whatever's their primetime shoulder 7-8, newest episodes of most popular fiction and reality TV 8-10, primetime shoulder or Fox News (not that Fox News) 10-11, metro area news or whatever Fox plays after the news 11-11:30, late night comedy/celebrity interviews 11:30-12:30, late late comedy or news magazine program 12:30-1) Having that be Central would make the news end at the start of Los Angelenos' hour long commutes and few Easterners who have to work at 9 would want to stay up to see the end of those popular shows at around 1:30. (the networks prefer to lose Mountain viewers to lateness than Eastern, much less viewers) Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:18, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply

]

It means 8:00, 7:00 Central Time. Sometimes they will say it out loud, even. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:06, 18 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wrongfilter and some others have given the OP good advice. For background, it may be helpful to know that in the early days of

network programs for the west coast possible, stations in the Central Time Zone did not need to use this expensive and time-consuming method of delayed broadcast because airing programs live and one hour earlier was already traditional. --Thomprod (talk) 14:39, 19 September 2018 (UTC)[reply

]

Markus Prokott (talk) 11:01, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If it is Australian or Canadian the accent will not sound like

General American. If Australian is like British in this one vowel they might talk like shaaft and if it is Canadian they might talk like aboot or aboat (about) you knoo (know). Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 11:51, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply

]

I don't think I have heard so much Canadian or Australian in TV so far. I don't think there are so much shows and movies from these with international attention. Or they might not use their own accents and rather use US accent or the disgusting British

Received Pronounciation just to be more mainstream (unfortunately). (What accent do they use in Stargate Atlantis

in the original English version? I only saw the German version, but I estimate it would be US accent.)

Markus Prokott (talk) 18:58, 20 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"General American" and "General Canadian" are essentially exactly the same - could you tell just by listening whether Peter Jennings was Canadian or American? No, probably not. That's an artificially "neutral" accent though, people don't generally talk like they are reading the news on national TV. I live close to the border, so I can watch the news from Detroit, or Cleveland, or Buffalo, and they all have accents that are very different from mine. But the language is the same, so we never dub shows from any other English-speaking countries.

It's interesting that you mention Stargate Atlantis because, not only was the show filmed in Canada and had a lot of Canadian actors, some of the characters were Canadian too, and sometimes there were jokes about their different accents. The "ZPM" power source was pronounced "zee-pee-em" by the American characters, and "zed-pee-em" by the Canadians. In one episode, Rodney and his sister, both Canadian characters (and played by Canadian actors) both say "sorry" the stereotypical Canadian way and Carter teases them about it, which is extra amusing because although Col. Carter, the character, is American, the actor is also Canadian. Adam Bishop (talk) 12:06, 26 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]