LA Times is alerting everyone who watches Fox’s House by DVR, which is typically between 3.5 and 4 million people, to check their recording settings because Tuesday’s episode runs until 9:08 pm Eastern and your cable/satellite provider may not have updated its guide to reflect the change:
Fox has scheduled “House” to run until 9:08 that night. The producers asked for more time for an episode in which Hugh Laurie’s cranky doc and several patients are taken hostage by a gunman. The extended episode will push back the rest of Fox’s schedule; “Fringe” will start right after “House” and run until 10:07 p.m., delaying the local news.
The problem is that some cable systems — including Time Warner Cable in Los Angeles — have so far not updated their program guides to reflect the switch. So DVRs for those systems could be programmed to quit recording “House” at the usual time, and thus wind up cutting off the episode’s climax. (Some other systems, such as DirecTV, seem to have the correct information.)
Update: My Comcast (San Francisco) channel grid shows the correct 9:08 end time, but your mileage may vary.
Criminy! Why do they always have to do this? I just got my DVR and I’m still trying to figure out how to work it, and then they pull these stunts.
I swear the networks and the machines are in a conspiracy to drive us all mad.
(Oh, and that should be Tuesday, not tomorrow. Don’t join in the confusing conspiracy, please, Bill. We’re going mad fast enough as it is.
)
GRD, thanks, I originally set the post to publish on Monday and then changed that without changing the article copy. Now fixed.
the producers asked for more time? ha. what a coincidence they are doing it up against the final dancing with the stars. fox did the same thing with american idol… they had it go over by 5-10 minutes to hold down the start of dancing.
it doesn’t really matter… house is not idol and i don’t think ratings will really be affected one way or the other. just found it kind of funny.
My Time Warner provider has it ending at 9:08pm.
Both the Comcast DVR and Windows Media Center have the time correct in the program guide. I’m sure TiVo does too. In this case the warning seems unnecessary, but better safe than sorry…
Asked for more time? WTF? Just eliminate some of the commercials or tell them to drop dead and put the extra footage on the DVD or On Demand versions.
Hi there, Time Warner Cable customers …
If you have set your DVR to record House (as in, every episode that appears on Fox, etc.), then your DVR will automatically record the entire show, including the extra 8 minutes. If, however, you have set your DVR to record Fox from 8 pm to 9 pm, you will need to manually add the extra time. Questions? Feel free to email me. jeff.simmermon@twcable.com.
Yeah, this nearly screwed up my weekly timer for Fringe.
Funny about the producers asking for more time. Gotta Love Sweeps!