[Brekkie]

I have just seen what NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox will be airing prime time this Christmas Day 2022, and it is interesting to see the US networks approach to prime time Christmas Day.

We do moan and groan about what BBC, ITV etc offer, but comparing it to the US is interesting. To me, the line up on the US networks looks like any old Sunday.

NBC Prime Time - 7pm Football Night In Ameria. 8.15pm NFL Football Live, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Arizona Cardinals and ends at 11.30pm.

CBS Prime Time - 4.30pm NFL Football Live, Denver Broncos vs. Los Angeles Rams. 8pm 60 Minutes, their usual Sunday night current affairs show. 9pm East New York, a double bill repeat of the police drama series. 11pm Local News.

ABC Prime Time - 7.30pm NBA Basketball, live coverage starting with Memphis Grizzlies vs. Golden State Warriors live from San Francisco and then Phoenix Suns vs. Denver Nuggets live from Denver until 1am.

Fox Prime Time - 7pm TMZ's Merry Elfin' Christmas. 8pm The Simpsons, a repeat from a December 2021 episode. 8.30pm The Great North, a repeat from this sitcom. 9pm Bob's Burgers, a repeat. 9.30pm Family Guy, a repeat. 10pm Local News.

Now, what a dire line up. Christmas is virtually ignored. American networks all air their Christmas programming during the month of December, when ad revenue is ripe. Come December 24th, all specials have aired, as the ad revenue is at its lowest.

Very different culture. Maybe we should count ourselves lucky that BBC, ITV etc actually do try and bother to be festive.

That's their tradition though - they'd be horrified if the NFL and basketball games were replaced by seasonal specials of the network programmes just as BBC1 airing a Premier League match in primetime on Christmas Day wouldn't wash here.

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It’s obviously more noticeable this year with the way Christmas falls, I.e it’s the first time for a while there has been a full normal week with not even Christmas Eve falling on the Monday to Friday

That's my point - if Christmas Eve fell on, say, a Tuesday or Wednesday, then you might expect them to stop the previous Friday. With there being a full working week before Xmas Eve, it just seemed a little strange to stop so early. But then I suppose many of the schools will have broken up last Friday, too. 5 News has now finished for Christmas also (apart from summaries).

5 News stuck a bit longer this year - wasn't there a couple of years when they basically stopped full bulletins at the beginning of December?

Just to go back to the previous discussion...

Looking at TV Home, the characters version of the River ident returned last night, for 'Strike: Troubled Blood' at 9pm and 'The English' at 11:40pm, not seen yet today, so possibly initially restricted to post-watershed? Still using the normal Sky idents for the News

Considering the programme itself will be airing in a few days it would be odd to keep the idents off air.

[Rdd]

To be fair, the NFL on Christmas Day isn’t strictly an annual thing, and mainly happens if Christmas Day falls (as it does this year) on a weekend. Moreover if it falls (as it does this year) on a Sunday, the regular 1pm and 4:25pm Sunday slates get moved to Christmas Eve, leaving Sunday Night Football and some games that probably would have been played the Saturday otherwise. The NBA on the other hand does have a more solid Christmas Day tradition.

[tellyblues]

That's there tradition though - they'd be horrified if the NFL and basketball games were replaced by seasonal specials of the network programmes just as BBC1 airing a Premier League match in primetime on Christmas Day wouldn't wash here.

Some people would be annoyed about it but just as many would want to watch.

[Brekkie]

Christmas isn't really about the TV though in the US, other than the sport.

Back to the BBC and once again the 23rd seems one of the strongest nights of the period with Motherland, The Cleaner and Two Doors Down all on BBC1, along with The Weakest Link and a Masterchef special and a new Pointless Christmas special too. A quizzy block on BBC2 too.

[tellyblues]

Sorry, didn't make it clear that I was referring to just the match over here. I agree that something other than sport would be a shock to viewers in the US but there isn't anything on BBC1 other than the royal speech that people would think has to be shown on Xmas Day.

[Argyess]

Good to see the Walking ident is starting to get used before one or two non-news programmes again. I'm expecting it'll get restored for the pre news junctions from this weekend, although that's pure speculation on my part.

[excel99]

5 News stuck a bit longer this year - wasn't there a couple of years when they basically stopped full bulletins at the beginning of December?

I don't recall full bulletins stopping entirely in early December, but I think they may have dropped the 1700 bulletin and just had the 1830, so as to help fit in an extra Christmas Film

[James2001]

Worth pointing out that this year will be the first properly televised King's speech, as the last one in 1951 was radio only (though I think simulcast on TV in audio only). There wasn't video until 1957.

[Neil Jones]

Worth pointing out that this year will be the first properly televised King's speech, as the last one in 1951 was radio only (though I think simulcast on TV in audio only). There wasn't video until 1957.

Yes but technically that's the Royal Christmas Message, which makes it gender neutral (though i suspect that's been sort of lost due to the length of the reign of The Queen).

The first TV pre-recorded message was 1959. The monarch used to do these live (apart from George VI's last one which he did record in advance).

[Stooky Bill]

Worth pointing out that this year will be the first properly televised King's speech, as the last one in 1951 was radio only (though I think simulcast on TV in audio only). There wasn't video until 1957.

Yes but technically that's the Royal Christmas Message, which makes it gender neutral (though i suspect that's been sort of lost due to the length of the reign of The Queen).

The first TV pre-recorded message was 1959.  The monarch used to do these live (apart from George VI's last one which he did record in advance).

Yes it's never called the Queens/Kings Speech - that is the name given to the one he/she makes to open Parliament. 

It's either the Christmas message or more commonly in the schedules as just 'The Queen' or 'The King' 

Going back to it being a radio broadcast, until fairly recently the radio version went out at 11am and the TV at 3pm. I think it was only when it got shared between BBC and ITN that it became simulcast. I think there's still a different radio version for obvious reasons