As I write this, my DVR is a few short hours away from taping The CW’s Privileged and CBS’s The Mentalist and not Fox’s Fringe at 9 p.m. ET. I have my reasons, but I’ve been second-guessing the decision all day. Were I a sane person, it wouldn’t matter: I know I can watch Fringe tomorrow on Hulu, and I’m not a Nielsen family, so I don’t have to feel guilty for affecting the show’s ratings and betraying Joshua Jackson. Still, I feel… anxious. What if at 9:15 p.m I realize I made a mistake? It’ll be too late to change the channel. I’ll still have to watch Fringe tomorrow.
Here are my questions for you:
1. Now that so many episodes are available online the day after they air, do you still find yourself stressing over timeslot traffic jams?
2. If you answered yes, which timeslot war pains you the most and which show is the casualty?
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I, too, have the same delimma about tonight’s shows, but Priviliged is out in the cold. I also struggle on Mondays at 8 with Gossip Girl, Chuck, and How I Met Your Mother.
Hulu has definitely made life easier, but you have to know which shows can wait a day. The most crowded timeslot is 8pm on Monday. We’ve got Chuck, Terminator, and HIMYM. Terminator gets the morning after treatment.
My only timeslot war grievance is Monday 8-9. I watch Big Bang Theory & How I Met Your Mother, I Tivo The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I Tivo the Gossip Girl encore the following Sunday.
But I really don’t stress because I know I can catch most of the stuff I miss online within a few days. Which will come in handy once Pushing Daisies starts again and I have to decide between that and Bones.
Mondays is my only ‘conflict’ with Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, and Terminator. Terminator loses, and we watch it online later. Tuesdays would have been the exact same problem as yours, Mandi, with the same decision, if I hadn’t decided I couldn’t deal with ANOTHER Lost. ‘Lost: Original Flavor’ pisses me off enough as it is.
PS — If Fringe makes it the season and turns out to be awesome, I will certainly pick it up over the summer.
Thursdays are always bad for me between ABC dramas and NBC comedies, but now that shows are online and I’m not busy at work on Fridays, my stress level has gone down quite a bit.
My time slot war is also Monday from 8-9 (Chuck, Terminator, Big Bang, How I Met Your Mother). I decided to record Chuck and Terminator and watch the CBS comedies online. But this week was particularly painful when the Steelers played Monday Night Football (I recorded Chuck for multiple viewings). Also, I found out this morning that Big Bang isn’t replayed online (at least not yet).
Mondays at 8 p.m.! I watch Chuck, Gossip Girl, HIMYM and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. It’s really tough deciding which to watch, record or download.
It’s simple: at&t U-Verse. I can record up to 4 shows at one time. It’s a couch potatoe’s dream. It has, however, caused me to record record even more shows than I need to, which means I have almost too much to keep up with.
Mondays are the worst. We have How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, Terminator, and Gossip Girl all in the same time slot. We’re TiVoing HIMYM and Chuck, taping GG in our bedroom with ye olde VCR, and watching Terminator on the Fox website the next day (or whenever). I wish the networks would consult me about scheduling so they could arrange it for my personal convenience, but having show available on the internet ASAP after broadcast is the next best thing, I guess.
I concur about Mondays at 8 (Chuck, HIMYM, Gossip Girl and T:SCC)
Wow. I typed mine up before I could see the other comments. Clearly some execs need to work this out!
Monday 9-10 pm
How I Met Your Mother
Chuck
Gossip Girl
Sarah Conner Chronicles
HELP!
We have only one DVR in our house cus i paid to have it in my room lol…well i live with my sis & bro in law. The only two shows they ask me to DVR are One Tree Hill and Heroes on monday nites. . .i dont watch either of the shows…well as i was reading EW fall preview i realized Samantha Who? starts on Oct 6 and is in that time slot. . .i can only record 2shows at a time. . .im so pissed cus they wont let me stop recording the other 2 shows cus they tell me that monday is the only night they ever ask me to record something. So im going to be missing Samantha Who…im so mad!
Wow, it seems almost everyone has the same timeslot problem: Monday at 8! I watch HIMYM live since it’s my first Monday night love then tape Gossip Girl. Thursdays are also tricky…The Office or Grey’s….laughs or whining? I choose laughs and roll my eyes at the whining later (for some reason I can’t not watch Grey’s!).
Wednesdays at 8pm will end up being the worst for me:
Bones
Pushing Daisies
New Adventures of Old Christine
Yep, it’s the Monday night pile up of HIMYM, Gossip Girl, and Chuck for me. Luckily they premiered Chuck early on Amazon unbox so that solved this week. It looks like Chuck in on Hulu, so that will be my choice in the future.
Monday nights. Why does everything I want to watch air on Monday nights??
Whoever programmed the campy funny looking Kath & Kim opposite the SECOND HALF of Ugly Betty has ensured the failure of that show — it is exactly the same demographic.
Same with the Mondays. Heroes, Gossip Girl, HIMYM…way too many shows!
Bones and Pushing Daisies being on at the same time is really bugging me. I mean, I can record them both at the same time, but why? WHY?!?
I suppose I’m fortunate in that I have 2 Tivos with which I can record 3 shows at once, so I don’t have too much of a problem. Except, of course (as everyone else), with Monday nights. I had been planning on giving Terminator a chance after I heard it was pretty good by the end of last year, but I already record Chuck, Gossip Girl, and HIMYM, and I refuse to watch anything live, as I am addicted to getting rid of commercials.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the worst
Monday
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles (8 pm)
How I Met Your Mother (8:30 pm)
Boston Legal (10 pm)
CSI Miami (10 pm)
Wednesday
America’s Next Top Model (8 pm)
Bones (8 pm)
The New Adventures of Old Christine (8 pm)
Thursday
My Name is Earl (8 pm)
The Office/30 Rock (9 pm/9:30 pm)
Grey’s Anatomy
Tuesdays are easy, I only watch House
Thursdays at 8 are rough with Ugly Betty, Smallville, Surivivor and My Name Is Earl. Catch in reruns Earl and Smallville!
Monday night, when Terminator and Chuck are on at the same time. I went with Chuck last night and caught up on Terminator at the Fox website. May have to switch things around next week.
Mondays at 9PM. Prison Break and Heroes. Always struggle with that one. Also it’s not two shows but Monday night football usually runs past the start of How I Met Your Mother. That’s rough too.
Agree with everyone else – Mondays at 8 EST. It’s just painful. And we’re just getting started!
I’ve realized that I will have to start watching Bones online on Thursdays, since I am going to give the 8:00 pm Wednesday slot to Pushing Daisies.
Wednesdays are the worst. Bones, Pushing Daisies, and America’s Top Model are all on at the same time!
I have a feeling Thursdays–Eleventh Hour vs. Life on Mars–are going to be the death of me.
Monday is the worse:
Chuck, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, DWTS (DWTS gets the boot – I read the re-cap on ew.com)
Wednesday is a problem:
Bones, Pushing Daisies and ANTM (I think that I will have to watch Bones online the next day – bummer).
I’m another with an issue on Monday nights, with Chuck, Gossip Girl and Terminator. I took the bold and ridiculous step of picking up a DVR cable box for my bedroom TV, too, so I can record shows on both televisions in my house. Thank goodness I’m sitting out DWTS this season, else I would have a much more serious problem!
Tues at 9 as well The Mentalist vs. Privileged. How do I choose?