Commercialism

Typically, an American television show will run 22 minutes for each half hour. That's 8 minutes of commercials for 30 minutes. It's not quite 1/3 of the show.

But here's the thing, every time I switch channels, I almost always land on commercials. Why is that? My theory had been that the commercial tend to occur at the same time. Thus, in a 30 minute show, it might appear every five minutes, or it might appear every 10. As you switch, most every other show is also having their commercials on then too.

Still, I tend to watch lots of sports, and their commercials are a little more unpredictable, so why do I still keep bumping into commercial after commercial. You would think my odds are 2 in 3 that I won't hit one, and yet, I feel it's nearly 8 in 10 that I will hit a commercial.

Do you get the same sense too?