The NY Times Reports On A National Crisis: NFL Games Delaying The Start Of The Good Wife On CBS

It seems overwhelmingly likely, since you are reading a fine sports blog like this one, that you prefer the riveting, mature drama of CBS's The Good Wife to the NFL. Oh, there is television, and then there is Josh Charles and Julianna Margulies navigating the remains of Margulies' broken marriage. There is action, and then there is politicking at a high-powered law firm. Who would let football forestall such programming? The New York Times will not let this stand!

The problem is one that shows on CBS have lived with for a generation: late-afternoon National Football League games that run past their scheduled broadcast time. This season, for example, "The Good Wife" has started as late as 9:29 p.m. Eastern time—as it did on Oct. 30—not at 9 p.m. as scheduled.

Not only is that a rather odd time to begin watching a television show, but it is also far later than anyone's DVR anticipated the show to start. For some avid followers that means a truncated episode.

Bobbi-Lee Smart, a fan of the show who participates in a weekly online commentary about "The Good Wife," said in a Twitter message, "Any time events run over their time and cut into the shows I'm recording I get annoyed." [...] On Oct. 30 viewers in every CBS market were affected. If they recorded "The Good Wife" at its usual time, and sat down to watch it later, they would have seen 29 minutes of "The Amazing Race," the reality competition that precedes "The Good Wife" on Sundays—and only half the episode of the hourlong drama they wanted to see.

Real people have these problems.

‘The Good Wife' Taking Late Hits by N.F.L. [NYT]