We're planning to move from Oklahoma to Washington. We were just out there and got so tired of having to stay up later to see our favorites shows like ER and CSI Miami. When we were there in October, it was weird to have football games at 9 AM. In my whole life of TV, it's always been so convenient to start getting ready for bed during the 10 PM news and watching the Tonight and Letterman shows before going to sleep. How did it happen that prime time starts at 8 PM in the east and west, but 7 PM in the midwest? Do you folks in the other time zones go to work later and go home later than we do?

No. The simple answer is that those areas like the Midwest and Alaska have a smaller population and the tv people find it cheaper to cater to the larger populations and screw the rest, than change it for each area.

Try Alaska for a while. Nothing is played at Alaskan time, it's all said as either EST or Central. But you have to try and remember which channels you follow the EST time, and which you follow the Central time, and which you subtract an hour from the announced time of the show to get when it will actually be played at your house. And nothing is ever ever ever live.

(I'm so glad we moved!)