How hard is it to get a show to finish on time – or at least close?
Yes, The X Factor is rating its socks off, but, regardless of what EPG’s say, it is finishing well over 10 minutes late each night messing up programming for Seven subsequent, especially for those who record shows and don’t watch anything live.
At our house, we watch nothing live. My wife and I were both interested in the “Party Songs” edition of X Factor last night (Tuesday Sept 25) – Alicia especially with the promise of a George Michael song performed on the night which never came to fruition. To me, most of the song choices did not even come close to what I would consider “party songs.”
We played back that night’s episode around 9pm, fast forwarding through ads and padding to see performances and judges comments. The EPG suggested it finished around 9.37 (from memory).
But – when we got to the last performance, it cut off mid-way – despite having a 10 minute overrun on our IQ2. Therefore we didn’t see the completion of the performance, nor the judges comments or the wrap up for the show. X Factor finished around 9.50pm on Tuesday night (Sept 25).
Now turn to the live results show – Wednesday September 26.
I checked Seven’s EPG early in the night – only to find that it read 7.30pm for the start of X Factor, then an 8.30pm finish.
I thought straight away – yeah right.
So, in order to make sure we would be able to see the complete show, we had to set our IQ2 to also record Criminal Minds at 8.30pm. But – anyone who wanted to record Criminal Minds would therefore also have recorded Covert Affairs after, and so on – the flow on effects are ridiculous. No different on Tuesday night either when Seven programming ran 15 minutes late all night.
X Factor for Wednesday night started at 7.34pm. It did not finish until 8.50pm.
Yes – 8.50pm.
EPG said 8.30pm.
Criminal Minds was advertised for an 8.30pm start.
Seriously – misguiding the audience.
From the point of view from people who don’t watch TV live and record shows to fit into their own schedules, these extreme late finishes are a turn off.
Why should we have to program in 20 minute or even 30 minute overruns to make sure we can see the show we want? Or have to set the following show to record to make sure we can see the end of the one we want?
In my opinion, the results shows are padded out WAY too much and there is no reason why they cannot fit into a one hour timeslot.
But 80 minutes for results show? Too long! Glad I am not watching live, and probably never will.
If X Factor keeps running more than 10 minutes late, and playing back the recording of the show keeps cutting off the end, then we will give it a miss – as no doubt others will too.
Please – Seven – have some respect for your viewers.
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