by Frank Macek
As you know, Congress was so dead set on enacting legislation to move up the start of Daylight Savings Time from April to March. What you may not know is this move is having a negative impact on evening TV viewing already in just the first few days since Sunday morning's change.
The intentions of legislators were good for those who felt the extra daylight will help conserve energy, although one could immediately argue against that notion.
However, it's also giving viewers the chance to get more work down in the evening hours while spending less time in front of their tv screens.
According to national Nielsen trends, Sunday night saw a nearly 7% slip in the 7 pm hour compared to a week before. For younger demographics, the slip was even more dramatic - down 12% for adults 18-49 who simply chose not to watch TV as early.
Monday was not any better with three 8 pm shows on NBC, ABC and FOX seeing the worst series numbers. Tuesday remained off.
Will this get any better in the years ahead?
Traditionally, Daylight Savings Time in April usually led to this trend being delayed as the weather warmed and people spent more time outside.
The saving grace was May sweeps quickly brought viewers back inside to catch their favorite, new episodes of the power shows to kick off the summer months.
Unfortunately this year, we may already be in trouble if this is an indicator of things to come. Of course, you could blame the writer's strike, an increase in the use of DVR's and just bad programming on the networks - but it's something to watch as an unintended consequence of Congress trying to do something right for the wrong reasons in our industry.
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