Well, CBS has done it again. ...

Question: Well, CBS has done it again. I was interested in watching Category 7: The End of the World tonight (Sunday), but apparently because of a late football game, it started 10 minutes late. This has not only messed up my TV watching for tonight, but how many people have TiVos who are not going to catch the end, since they'll cut off at 11 pm? Also, CBS has sacrificed one hour for four since Category 7 is a two-parter set to finish next week (Nov. 13). If I can't watch the first part, I won't be interested in tuning in for the second part next week. NBC's NASCAR coverage ran over by 20 minutes, but they adjusted Dateline so it ended at 8 pm/ET to accommodate a top-of-the-hour start time for The West Wing. If NBC can do it, why can't CBS? Just another example of the networks not giving a flip about the audience. Your thoughts?
Answer: Rule of thumb when planning to record either CBS or Fox on Sundays during football season, on VCR or DVR: Set ample time on either end, because especially on CBS, it almost never runs in pattern (on the East Coast, anyway). Fox at least has built in the option of airing an animated repeat in the 7 pm/ET half-hour, so new episodes of King of the Hill often get to run intact on time. But CBS makes so much money on its warhorse 60 Minutes that, unlike the much more disposable Dateline, it's less flexible when it comes to shrinking the show to fit the original schedule. You can almost always count on CBS' Sunday shows to begin late. This is not a secret. It's been going on for years. (Here's how I do it when I'm home on Sundays: I wait to see when 60 Minutes starts, and I calculate an hour ahead to set the recorder for Cold Case, because it's easier for me to watch West Wing, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy in real time and catch up with the other stuff later.)