I think it is a conspiracy. I've noticed this a couple of times on some programs. I think that they may be TRYING to screw up your TiVo. They may be afraid that if you TiVo the program, you'd just skip the commercials.

They also tend to run the most popular shows over to try to get TiVoers to record the next show so you might try it. But it's "The Bachelor", I think.

I don't really remember the last part of the show in any sort of order. I don't think anything really important happened after that. The redneck guy (I'm terrible with names, especially of TV characters) congratulated the lifeguard for joining him as a figure of hate, or something like that. The Korean lady thanked her husband for getting water, and he said that's what husbands do. (Really, is that all?) Next week, the Korean guy tries to kill the black guy for talking to his wife and gets handcuffed to the wreckage to punish him, and now Jack wants to know what Kate did (those characters' names I remember) but she tells him he had his chance.

I guess I am in for the same thing since I was watching the beisbol during lost (and Desparate Housewives and Boston Legal). I wonder if this is some kind of network TiVo-busting ploy.

I don't recall which programs it was, but I seem to recall one time when two programs (on competing networks) were scheduled such that one ended at 8:01, and the other began at 7:59, so that you couldn't set TiVo to automatically record both.

Well, it's not happening here in New York at WABC (my DVR snagged Lost just fine), so it's not a network thing. Mebbe a call in to your local ABC affiliate might produce some results.

Having said that, ABC is rebroadcasting the previous two episodes of Lost on Saturday night, so there's your chance to catch up, assuming that you don't want to watch the World Series...

You hardly missed anything. Jack told Kate his father died. Kate says, "I'm sorry." Jack says while looking at the waves, "I'm sorry too." Kate looks at him for a second, then looks out at the waves, and the final shot shows them sitting on the beach staring pensively out at the ocean.

I avoided this problem by having Tivo record an extra five minutes, as ABC seems determined to make this a pattern.

Mac is right about "The Bachelor". It often ran over into the next show "The Mole" and "Celebrity Mole".

Don't ask me how I know that.

Thanks, everyone. I've seen Mark Evanier complain about this sort of thing in the past, but it's the first time it's affected anything I watch.

Back in the day when I recorded everything on VCR, I'd set the time from (say) 7:58 to 9:02, and wouldn't have noticed a problem here. And I'd still get to zip past commercials. It's just obnoxious what they're doing.

I've been thinking about getting a TiVo, but you have to have a land phone line to set it up and I don't have one.

The other thing, by the way, is commercials. NBC, for instance, a couple of years ago routinely would run "Friends" to about 7:32 and later start "ER" at about 8:58 because they could fit in some extra commercials that way. Well, they'd have the same number of commercials a night, but one during "Friends" cost several times what one during whatever "started" at "7:30" would.

Oh, and there's a rerun tomorrow night.

Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to have to add a minute to the end of the Season Pass options for "Desperate Housewives" to avoid that. I've noticed a lot more of that whole beginning things a minute or two early here. Tim and I have a running joke that Tim Heller really ought to be saying, "Live at 4:58 begins now." The 5 pm news always starts a minute or two early, as does the 4 pm news. And Channel 11 starts "Jeopardy" a minute or so early, too.

With stuff like TiVo becoming more common, I think this sort of thing will happen more often. I guess it's to get people to watch live TV more or to tweak their recordings to get those extra couple minutes, but all it does is annoy me.

FYI, you don't need a land-line for TiVo any more. The latest Series 2 TiVos will download guide data from the Internet using a USB network adapter.

Huh. The reruns this Saturday took the cake for underhanded "We hate TiVo users" tricks. Episode 4 ended at 8:01, Episode 5 started at 8:00. Same channel, but the season pass only picked up Episode 5.

You know the really funny thing? The really funny thing is that before they started doing this, it never even occurred to me to look for recently aired shows on a filesharing program. Now I'm wondering why I'm paying $13/month for a TiVo when I can get the HDTV versions a day or two later off the internet with the commercials already removed.

you guys need to get a life

Has anyone noticed
A) a dramatic increase in the number of commercial interruptions on DH compared to last season (and other shows)? I've never before been so irritated that I want to "time shift" just to skip the commercials. I think ABC has finally gone-over-the-top. (anyone timed content:commercials with a stopwatch?)
B) when there is music, e.g. opening credits, there is a "warbly" quality to the musical pitch? {kinda like slowing down an old tape recorder with your hand, and then letting it speed up to normal). I suspect that they are "time compressing" the show slightly to fit in more commercials--but this is only speculation.