Remember when TBS programming started five minutes later?

I've always assumed it was to discourage viewers from channel surfing. When your TBS show ends five minutes late, then switching channels means you've missed the first five minutes of *that* program, so viewers might just stick with whatever comes on TBS next.

It was "Turner Time" It was for a lot of reasons. The idea was it kept you locked into their channel for one, since everything was off from other networks you wouldn't channel hop after a show ended. It also meant in a TV guide grid their offerings stood out separate from the bulk of most channels. Last but not least the thought process was viewers who missed the start of something on another channel would tune in to TBS as a second choice and then be locked in there still Though when I was a little kid I was absolutely certain it was because they were 5 minutes late going on the air the first time and just ran with it

Saturdays at 6:05 meant WCW was coming on.  Unless the Braves were playing.

Yes. I do remember the saved by the bell reruns starting at 2:05 and 2:35 on the Superstation.

Also, why did all cable packages include WGN? What was so special about that network that it was a standard channel? Always puzzled me. 

I googled it for you TBS started shows at :05 and :35 past the hour(known as "Turner Time") starting in 1981 to capture channel-flippers

Wow! Completely forgot that? OP? What made you remember that?

I’d always heard the reason was so that it would stand out in TV Guide print version

Always clicked over when the other networks went on commercial because of the stagger.

TNT movies do. A movie is scheduled for a specific time and you end up watch Wrestling for 30-45 minutes till it starts.

Pepperidge farms remembers

Wait…I grew up thinking it was because Braves games started at 7:05 and so the rest of the schedule was built around that time. My entire life has been a lie.

I heard that while the other channels would be at commercial, it would help reel channel surfers in. Idk if this was really the case.

Somebody’s feeling nostalgic. I always thought it was a combination of being unique and giving viewers a 5 minute grace period to get ready for a specific program.

The weirdest example to me is Saturday Night Live, because *they still do it to this day*. The show starts at 11:29 and ends at like 1:02 or 1:03 (I think that’s the hard out, it often ends a minute or two earlier but if it’s not done by 1:03 or something they will abruptly cut the feed). As someone who still occasionally watches antenna TV and always watches SNL for over 20 years I still haven’t quite gotten used to it starting a minute before my brain says it should, and I’m surprised it never got changed to starting at 11:30. Also as far as the discouraging channel flipping thing goes, HBO is really annoying in this regard and I just couldn’t put up with watching TV that way. I only ever had “real” live HBO once, via Sling TV way back in like 2015, and I think it was a short trial or something so I only watched it this way once or twice. But the Sunday night lineup was Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, and Veep, maybe even Last Week Tonight after that, and I wanted to watch all of them. The first show started at a normal time but because it’s HBO the episodes were random lengths so every other show started at some unpredictable time with only a one minute promo between shows. If you wanted to watch a whole programming block, and didn’t have a DVR (which Sling didn’t at the time), you were stuck there for 2-3 hours with no breaks. And if you only wanted to catch one show you had to look it up every week to find out what random time it was starting. I can only assume it’s still that way but I’d bet these days like 95% of people watch HBO shows via HBO Max and not on cable.

Most programs started about 3 minutes after the hour across all channels. I remember having a few extra minutes for bathroom breaks before shows started back in the day. I don't watch enough live TV to know if they still do.

My older, wiser brother told me it's because that station is in a different time zone. I feel like 8 year old me was duped.

Yep

6:05 Eastern Sunday on the SuperStation!

I really miss Movies For Good Who Like Movies and it was either Road or Bloodsport.

Yeah, that always threw me off when I’d flip channels. I’d land on something halfway through and think I missed the start, then realize it was just TBS doing its own thing. from what I remember, it was kind of intentional so they wouldn’t line up exactly with other networks. If you were channel surfing at the top of the hour, there was a good chance something on TBS was already in progress and might hook you instead of you switching away during opening credits. Felt weird at the time, but looking back, it was kind of a clever way to stand out.

I thought it was just them squeezing in more commercials. They all the openers and credits from shows.

I am old enough to remember when they made the change in the early 80s. As others have said, the idea was that you could flip around for a couple of mins, finally decide to watch WTBS and you wouldn’t miss anything.

Fun fact about TBS: in Atlanta it was channel 17. When Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves there was a pitcher named Andy Messersmith who traditionally wore number 17. Turner signed him to a huge contract and offered him a bonus if he’d legally change his last name to “Channel” so his jersey would say “Channel 17”. Messersmith declined but there are a few photos of him wearing a “Channel 17” jersey from spring training.

wait what? i never noticed this back in the day but that's such a random thing to do. was it like their whole schedule or just certain shows? maybe they were trying to catch people channel surfing after other networks finished their programs or something

Probably just to fit in a lead-in commercial break. Considering they would edit out whole scenes and speed up movies to also fit in more commercials

I always thought it was because they exclusively aired every Atlanta Braves game.