Yes, they are in fact doing this, I saw this last evening on Everybody Loves Raymond.

/seen it, hate it.. They stopped Raymond mid joke (not that I like that show) to drop a Bill Engval ad in. Serisouly annoying

Don't they realize that most people will put up with mildly annoying shit on TV, but that insanely annoying shit like this will drive people away in droves?

I don't see how this is possible. Everybody Loves Raymond doesn't have any jokes to pause halfway through.

I saw this too while visiting my folks last week. It helped me remember why I gave up cable. I guess we should expect more of this coming.

Well that's one way around people skipping commercials with their Tivos.

@B: Ohhh BURN

TBS is the channel with the Bill Engvall show and the House of Payne show that they show commercials for CONSTANTLY, right? I hope that channel goes down in flames.

It was only a matter of time before it came to this. TV stations have been running bigger and larger "snipes" on the bottom of the shows, and TBS has in the past run crawls in the middle of a show with advertising. This must be their response to Tivo viewers who blow past the commercials.

It's all about making more money than last year. Wall Street asks "what have you done for me this month?" and the consumer is treated to gross disregard.

I haven't watched anything on TBS in a long time, now I know that if I'm treated like this as a viewer, I'll find something else to watch.

First the Fat Boys break up, now this...

I get all my TV shows from Netflix. I've watched all seasons of Arrested Development, CSI, and my other favorites on DVD.

When I catch a show on actual television and see all the garbage cluttering the screen I wonder why I'm still even paying for cable.

james...

I just know that if it starts happening in any show I watch--and I only ever use TBS for mindless repeats (not of Raymond; I don't watch it) as it is--I'll stop watching them altogether. You know what else TiVo is good for? Finding out which other stations are showing what you want to see! Bwahahaha!

@ceejceej: Jay-Z (Heart of the City) reference?

Are you sure it wasn't an accident? This only happened once?

Given that this is a Turner network, I have no doubt it was intentional. They are, after all, the gods of the "lower thirds" (that annoying crap at the bottom of the screen that covers up unimportant stuff like subtitles). TNT is the worst for this.

This would definitely be enough to make me banish the channel altogether. I have not seen it yet, but if I do, then that's it.

It happens every farking episode. My wife and I watch Raymond all the time (it's one of the few shows we can agree on), and every episode, right toward the end, Bill Engvall pops up, CLICKS ON A REMOTE CONTROL, and pauses the TV. Then he does his "ad", CLICKS THE REMOTE again, and unpauses the TV just long enough to finish episode, usually just in time for another commerical for the "Bill Engvall" show. It's definitely delibrate. The man's pushing the PAUSE button on a remote, for cripes sake. Between that and the godawful House of Payne (RETCH!), it makes me stabby..

TBS not so funny

Also, I hate their commercials where someone calls in trying to find out if something is funny. Are people so stupid they have to be told what's funny? I won't watch TBS because it annoys me so.

I am getting sick of the 'bug' with the network logo. Some channels, like NOGGIN and PBS SPROUT (I have a toddler) have their logos so large, that they block characters, or subtitles.

I get 'LIFESKOOL' as an on-demand, and their log also covers a large portion of the screen, as ell as subtitles. It's 1/2way across the bottom of my screen.

Oh, di I mention that there is a purpleish haze in the lower right corner now? I betcha that's related...

So there's the next step then. I had assumed it would just be bigger station identifier icons down in the corner, or maybe split screen (oh just wait till that day), but I guess this is it.

Well gang, now's the time to speak up. I'll be heading over to their site or looking up CS numbers to bitch; suggest you do the same if you don't want this to spread to other stations and get even worse.

They're totally doing this, I've noticed it while watching Everybody Loves Raymond in particular. They don't seem to be doing it when Friends is on (directly after Raymond) though.

Wow, nice ironic sarcasm with the logo picture!

Its actually worse then this... They completly cut to commercial in the middle of a scene and then come back after the scene is over. This is very late at night mind you but still, what about those of us with irregular jobs?

@scatyb: "Are people so stupid they have to be told what's funny?"
Those aren't real people, you realize. It's a commercial.

Yes, I've seen it in TBS and I can't say I'm happy with it.

FearNet does something similar. They don't stop the action but they do something just as despicable. A few weeks ago my wife and I were watching Jacob's Ladder on FearNet on demand. Periodically, they would put up an ad for one of their own shows. They did not stop the action but their stupid ad would cover half of the screen. Way to screw up the atmosphere of the film, idiots!

@ENRIQUEZ: I understand that. It's just insulting and basically says, "(S)He isn't smart to figure out what's funny and neither can you. So tune in to us and we'll tell you what is."

I just find them incredibly annoying.

Although some of the above posters are massively over exaggerating, the "pause, do commercial, unpause, 1.5 seconds of show left, then go to real commercial" does happen.

YES, it is very annoying. NO, they have not actually cut off anyone speaking yet. Most commonly the fake "pause" happens when the canned laughter and piano "de-de-de-diddily-dum" music is happening right as they go to commercial break anyways.

Its a lame way to advertise, but for those of you who are having a stroke over a tv show thats been in syndication for a year or two....wow.

@Thorimm: i've been told the purplish haze can be fixed by a large magnet. take it to a tv repair shop (they still exist...) and they'll fix it for $20 or less. i had the same problem w/ my tv. it occurs from wear and tear as well as being moved and bumped around too much.

I cant believe no one noticed that they Spelled Bill Engvall wrong in their own commercial!! In one commercial they spell it Bill Engvall and Bill Enval at two different points.

THORIMM :
the purpleish haze in the corner of your tube sounds like someone (one of your kids?) got a magnet close to it.

That this is happening on a TV network formerly run by Jamie Kellner should not surprise anyone.

Still lame, though.

I boycotted TBS years ago. Between the brutal cutting jobs on movies and then still rating the movie R and giving the viewer warnings, to the excruciatingly long commercial breaks, it drove me insane. This is not surprising.

I really can't understand why people are SO afraid to vote with their wallet. Why can't you stand up for yourselves?

I dumped cable completely several years ago because I got so fed up with all the annoying advertising. TBS was the worst of them. When they started those irritating ads that come out from the side right in the middle of a show I said enough.

Remember when you PAID for cable TV so you didn't have to watch commercials on like broadcast TV? Well now cable has more commercials that broadcast TV so I gave it the boot.

The sooner you start complaining loudly enough (by disconnecting your service) the sooner things will improve.

The worst thing about this whole thing is that people are admitting to watching Everyone Loves Raymond.

=p

I guess I'm an idiot, I like those call-in "is this funny" commercials. Not sure why, just find them amusing.

As for the TBS hating, I don't watch the network much at all, but I did witness something nice they did once. I got sucked into a King of Queens episode (I know, I'm an idiot) because the opening was extremely funny. Anyways, they hardly had any commercials during a large portion of the show and then stacked most of the ads at the end. I would say there was 2 breaks with 2 total minutes of commercials during the first 23 or so, and then there was two 3 minute breaks sandwiching the final minute of the show. I guess they don't do this often?

Just to tell a stupid story I was reminded of: Was watching The West Wing on Bravo a couple years ago. It was the 2nd episode of season 1, they goto commercial break with 10 minutes left, but when they comeback, they air the last 10 minutes of the pilot instead of the final 10 minutes of the episode I was watching. Would love to know how that happened.

@rhett121: Because there are a ton of other cable channels I do watch. And as much as I hate Charter and think that even Satan himself would consider them too evil, they have no control over what advertisements TBS has and me boycotting Charter wouldn't change a damn thing with TBS. It might help Charter fix their evil ways, but then leave me without internet access (no DSL here in suburban St. Louis....thanks AT&T) and my primary form of entertainment. But that's not really the issue here, the issue is TBS.

I wish cable and satellite would go to more of an a-la-carte system. Packages suck. If there are 20 channels you normally watch, with 10 in package A and 10 in package B, you're stuck paying more money for both packages for more channels that you never watch. I'd rather pick and choose what channels I want. Why am I paying for crap like Faux News and the bible channels when I'd much rather have HBO and Playboy? I want to replace the golf and nascar channels with NHL center ice. I've never seen a fight break out at a golf game, and left turns get boring after the 2nd lap. Give me the channels I mentioned and Comedy Central and I'll be happy. Throw in MSNBC too....To Catch A Predator has got to be the funniest thing on TV since Beavis and Butthead.

TBS is still around? I haven't watched that channel in at least 5+ years.

To the people complaining...yes, this is annoying, as is TBS's moving logo that caused me to stop watching the channel last year. Nice logo job, but I don't need it rotating. They do this on NBC with the office as well.

On the other (still annoying) hand, Everybody Loves Raymond comes on 6 different channels simultaneously in 4 hour blocks....just change the channel.

The other night, I caught the last few minutes of that Sunset Strip thing on NBC. The show seems to end, but as they're going to commercials, the announcer says, "Stay tuned for more Studio 60." OK, like a chump I believe them, thinking that it *might* be some quick thing with the cast saying "goodbye" or something (it was the last episode).

The commercials end and...NOTHING. The friggin' 11 PM local news comes on. Yeah, OK, NBC, you tricked me. Good job. Think I'm not pissed off and resentful? *I* think *you* better hope I don't take it out on you when I talk to the Neilsen people who sent me a postcard the other day to tell me they're going to be calling with a phone survey.

I have the feeling I'm going to be reporting a LOT of C-SPAN viewing.

So it's not enough that a half-hour TV show is really only fifteen minutes long due to commercials, but now they have the gall to take away even one extra minute? Yeah, it might be one minute, but when the actual running time of the show is half of the half-hour time slot it's supposed to fill, you would figure the execs running the station wouldn't be stupid enough to say, "Hey, what else can we do to take the enjoyment out of watching TV?"

Post Thought : If NBC tries picking up this "innovative form of advertising" when Heroes' second season comes out, I'm gonna be pissed. The show is awesome, but for being an hour long it's got an actual running time of, what, 35 minutes? I agree with Rhett; for all the money we pay to put the stations on the air, they run way too many advertisements.

What good is boycotting TBS going to do? Even if TBS goes 'dark' there will just be some other channel popping up with still more commercials.
We'll be back to more commercials after this brief snippet of actual programming...

In defense of Turner, they do have TCM, which has no commercials and shows classic movies in OAR and uncut. It's the only station that I bother to watch, and the sole reason i bother with cable.

I think you people are over reacting just a little bit. You're acting like Bill Engvall's breaking into your house, waking you up in the middle of the night and telling you about his show. It's a commercial for God's sake. What I hate are those stupid pop up style banner ads. They even have ones with sound so you have trouble hearing what you're watching, now that's irritating.

TBS plays more than Braves baseball? That's the only time I tune in.

Didn't they used to advertise themselves as "The Braves Station"?

guess what: the point of TV is to advertise. The shows you watch are filler for the ads. The characters and story lines convince you that you need to buy stuff because your life is incomplete and then the network is more than happy to show you which products to buy.

You aren't paying for the shows. You pay for the ads and the ads pay for the shows.

"oh glowing box of wonderment, please tell me what i should buy so that i can be just like these people that you say are perfect!"

i'll pass.

Mmm.. I think that's gonna backfire. Lots of people are going to turn to other channels or just watch their shows on DVD instead of putting up with that. It was already annoying with those ads that took up portions of the screen while the show was still playing. I can't even imagine if the show was stopped mid-line. Bad idea.

We bitch and bitch and then just sit there and eventually forget. That's what they want.

Do something about it, I did. There are websites with contact info.

Here's what I did. I stopped paying 50 bucks a month for advertisements and crap shows I never had the patience to watch. And I don't miss it. People always ask me, "Oh my God, how do you LIVE??" The time I could spend watching TV I spend instead with my husband or by playing games or watching my favorite movies. Is that so horrible?

@voodoodle: I agree. And from what I remember, there was some advertising within the shows themselves. That's how they try to get around Tivos and the like...pretty nasty.