broadcast programming Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast autom ...

, a hot switch or hotswitching is where the ending of one

television show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

leads directly into the start of the show in the next time slot without a

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

break. The concept is used to reduce the chances that people will switch to another

TV network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United ...

during the commercial break and allow the

cold open A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In North ...

of the new show to attract viewers; sometimes however, this will cause a commercial break right after the

opening credits In a motion picture, television program or video game, the opening credits or opening titles are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank scree ...

. It can also be called "seamless" broadcasting and is frequently used during television marathons and back-to-back airings of episodes of the same series. The technique is also used by many local network affiliates in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

to seamlessly transition from a local newscast to a network newscast.

Examples

In December 1992, for the premiere of '' The Jackie Thomas Show'', a hot switch was used where the end of an episode of ''

Roseanne ''Roseanne'' is an American television sitcom created by Matt Williams (producer), Matt Williams that originally aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from October 18, 1988, to May 20, 1997, and briefly revived from March 27, 2018, to May ...

'' had the Connor family watching the new show on television, and then the new show began. To see if this worked, ABC paid ACNielsen for a minute by minute ratings report, and found that most viewers stayed with the new show for the entire

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

.Carter, Bill. "ABC's Extra Careful Look At 'Jackie Thomas Show'." New York Times, 1992-12-07, p. D8.

References

Television terminology {{tv-term-stub