SCHEDULING

[thanksTed]

Why does TCM schedule the best films at midnight and after?

Some people can't stay up all night to watch a film,although I've wanted to.

[castillo]

I agree, I am not eighteen anymore, I get home tired and looking forward to watch one of the few decent channels left, perfect time is prime time.

[FredCDobbs]

Several of us have finally learned that we need to look at the schedules a few days in advance, and record the early-moring movies that we want to see in prime time.

[markfp2]

Welcome to the boards. You have to remember that TCM doesn't program just for the east coast. It programs 24 hours a day for all the time zones. When a film is shown at 1am in the east it's only 10pm on the west coast.

 

Usually, TCM tries to schedule repeats at different times to give everybody a chance to see it at a convenient time. For example, on January 4th TCM is showing Billy Wilder's great war film FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO at 1:15 am, the middle of the night here in the east, but prime time in the west. On February 22nd it's showing again at 8pm eastern while folks are still on their way home from work on the other coast. I imagine future showings will be scheduled in the morning or afternoon.

 

It's a no-win situation for TCM. No matter what time they schedule a film, it won't work for somebody. As another poster pointed out the best thing to do is to record the films you can't watch and then you can see them whenever you want to.