Dayparting

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Approximate US television broadcast dayparts for weekdays EST.

In broadcasting, dayparting is the practice of dividing the day into several parts, during each of which a different type of radio programming or television programming apropos for that time is aired. Programs are most often geared toward a particular demographic, and what the target audience typically engages in at that time.

Dayparts on radio

Rush hours are often particular dayparts for radio stations. Traffic reports are usually given at these times, and rarely at others. Arbitron, the leading ratings service in the United States, divides a weekday into five dayparts: morning drive (6-10 am), midday (10 am-3 pm), afternoon drive (3-7 pm), evenings (7 pm-12 midnight), and overnight (midnight-6 am; Arbitron generally does not measure during this time period).

In radio broadcasting through most of the 1990s, dayparting was also used for censorship purposes. To wit, in many cases if a certain song was deemed too offensive to most listeners, the song in question would only be allowed airplay during the late evening or overnight hours. Even today, the Federal Communications Commission dictates less stringent decency requirements for programming aired between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am local time.

The drive time dayparts are traditionally the most listened-to portions of the schedule, and most stations (both talk and music) have local programming in one or both time slots. The midday, or "at work" slot, has in recent years become particularly prone to voice tracking, as large station ownership groups cut costs and use supposedly local jocks at multiple stations (often in different time zones). Music stations often are careful not to repeat songs during the midday shift, as they generally have a captive audience, and will often use "9 to 5 No Repeat Workdays" and all-request or specialty lunch hours to lure listeners and air a broader variety of music. Evenings are a popular time for syndicated programs, while overnights are generally automated, either with or without a voice-tracked jock, though there are a few niche programs that target special audiences in the overnight and early-morning hours (America's Trucking Network, Midnight Trucking Radio Network, and the National Farm Report among them). On weekends, music stations often air syndicated programming, without regard to time slots (though Saturday nights often remain live with either local or syndicated hosts, especially on oldies and country music stations, to take requests) and talk stations air niche network shows or brokered programming. Religious programming often airs on Sunday mornings.

In talk radio, where voicetracking is impossible and syndication is live and national, these lines blur somewhat. The Rush Limbaugh Show airs in a time slot that is in midday in all time zones, but other than that and overnight shows such as Coast to Coast AM, a show that airs in the Pacific time zone's afternoon drive time (for instance, The Savage Nation) would fall into a less-listened to evening time slot on the East Coast. Similarly, a show that is in early middays on the East Coast would be in morning drive on the West Coast, and may not live up to the expectations of listeners expecting local, informative content. The general solution for this problem is to tape-delay programming to fit schedules.

Dayparts on television

On TV, like on radio, the day is divided into similar dayparts, although the times have been blurred somewhat. Breakfast television air between 7-10 am; on network television, these are usually long-form news programs featuring entertainment, light fare, and features aimed toward women. After breakfast comes daytime television, which, like the previous daypart, targets women (and also notably college students), particularly older retirees and the ever-shrinking base of stay-at-home moms and housewives; the soap opera, tabloid talk show and (much more rarely since the 1990s) the game show are popular genres in this daypart. A local noon newscast also airs during the noon hour on most stations as well (if so the case).

The later part of the daytime slot can sometimes be targeted for children and teenagers who come home from school. The U.S. networks Fox and The WB had children's blocks in the late 1990s, and even prior to that, CBS's Match Game exploited this audience to set ratings records in the 1970s). The United Kingdom's Channel 4 has also had consistent success with late-afternoon game shows; Countdown, airing daily since the network's launch, has been one of the network's popular programmes.

From 5-7 pm, newscasts are usually shown on most television stations. Local news is usually coupled with a half-hour network newscast and possibly a syndicated news program. Unlike morning news shows, these are more generally targeted programs and feature more hard news stories. Stations on minor networks usually air syndicated sitcom reruns or continue daytime programming during this daypart. Following the news, prime time begins with what is usually referred to as the "access period" (after former legislation in the United States which previously required networks to not show networked programming in that hour). In the United States, two game shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have dominated this time slot since the 1980s, and they usually compete with syndicated entertainment newsmagazines. Additional local newscasts have become increasingly popular in this time slot.

Prime time is the highest profile of television dayparts, from 7 or 8pm to 10 or 11pm, depending on the network and time zone. The highest rated programs on television often air during prime time, and almost all scripted programming (except soap operas) air during the prime time slots. Usually the main reason for the high profile of prime time television is due to the fact many people who come home from work and school tend to watch TV than any other activity. Following prime time, late newscasts often air, followed by late night television. Late-night shows are predominantly targeted toward younger male audiences (also college students and people who suffer insomnia are a large audience of late night TV) and feature a common format of a male host delivering a stand-up comedy routine, several guests, and a house band. After the late night shows, programming varies. Some stations may sign-off for the night, air infomercials, or air reruns of other programming. In some countries, programming aimed at adult audiences may also air during the late night hours, such as softcore pornography (in the United States, a handful of cable television channels such as Cinemax have used this practice, but this is forbidden on American broadcast television).

In North America, Friday nights are often considered the "death slot", due to the concept that many shows scheduled on or moved to Friday nights would not last long before cancellation due to low ratings. Some shows have achieved success on Fridays even with the notion of the death slot. Other "death slots" include Saturday nights, the 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m. weekday time slots (at least during the 1980s, both time slots have since been abandoned by all networks and given to local news or syndication), and the time slot or slots immediately opposite popular shows such as American Idol or the Super Bowl (see also Super Bowl counterprogramming). The phenomenon of fewer viewers on Friday and Saturday is in part because most people (particularly younger viewers that advertisers seek) are usually not home to watch TV on Friday and Saturday nights, and as a result, programs that air during this time are usually low rated.

Weekends have a slightly different setup than weekdays. On Saturdays, morning shows share time with the Saturday morning cartoon, where the networks usually fulfill federally-mandated regulations in some countries requiring the airing of educational or children's shows (such as in the United States, where at least 3 hours of this programming must air weekly across all television stations). Weekend afternoons often feature sporting events of varying degrees. During the fall, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC all broadcast football, NBA and college basketball occurs on ABC and CBS during the winter and spring. Golf (all networks except FOX), auto racing (ABC and FOX for NASCAR, though other networks sometimes air open-wheel circuits) and baseball (FOX) occur during the summer; in addition, sports anthology series such as the CBS Sports Spectacular, Canada's CBC Sports Saturday and ABC's Wide World of Sports broadcast a broad variety of lesser-known sports. Most stations also find time when sports is not airing to air large blocks of infomercials during this time slot.

Prime time programming on Saturday nights vary by country. In Europe, Saturday night prime time is usually devoted to entertainment programming such as reality talent shows such as The X Factor on ITV and Strictly Come Dancing on BBC in the United Kingdom or drama television shows such as Doctor Who on BBC and Primeval on ITV. In North America, with the exception of Univision's Sabado Gigante, not many new programs air on Saturday nights, focusing more on movies, reruns, and sometimes locally produced sporting events. In Canada, the CBC historically airs Saturday night NHL hockey nationally under the title Hockey Night in Canada, dating back to the early days of radio.

In the US, late night programming on Saturday features two prominent sketch comedy shows, Saturday Night Live and MAD TV. Sunday mornings, often known as the graveyard slot (particularly very early on Sunday morning) feature more morning shows, public affairs programming designed for very small audiences, more infomercials, televangelism, and a series of influential political interview programs known as the Sunday morning talk shows. Sunday evening is generally treated as a regular weeknight, with popular prime time programs airing. No network programming currently airs in the Sunday late night slot.