Were there some areas (like New York City, for example) in the 70s where you could watch TV at midnight or very early morning hours?

I'm asking this because I'm kinda curious about this.

I don't know anything that was on at 2am except some adult entertainment for when the kids were asleep, other than that I really don't know who was watching TV at that hour in the morning.  ???

Were there some areas (like New York City, for example) in the 70s where you could watch TV at midnight or very early morning hours?

I'm asking this because I'm kinda curious about this.


WCBS (Channel 2 in New York) was one of the first stations to provide around-the-clock TV, with its "Late Show" and "Late Late Show" features that would last well into the overnight hours, and that started way back in the '60s. WNBC wasn't too far behind, having late movies well into the 3 AM hour starting around the mid-70s. Some stations like WPXI and KDKA in Pittsburgh by the mid-70s were airing late night movies around 2 AM on late Saturday nights, often in the horror genre. It wasn't until the 1990s that around-the-clock TV became commonplace, thanks to overnight news services from the major networks that launched that decade (NBC News Nightside, ABC World News Now, and CBS Up To The Minute). PBS stations though continued to sign-off, usually well before 2 AM well into the '90s and even the '00s in a lot of markets since there was a lack of programming to farm for overnight viewing, and since those stations were publicly funded, there was even less incentive to show non-advertised programming when few were awake.

I think one person was able to watch TV at or around 2am was on New Year's Eve

Not in the U.K.

Not in the U.K.
All I can remember from the seventies in late night viewing on television was staying up for Monty Python, that was on after the 10 o'clock news, and at one time during the three day week (strikes etc), television broadcasting channels would shutdown early around 9pm.

Alot in the 70s I heard beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep and a test pattern on most stations..

Alot in the 70s I heard beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep and a test pattern on most stations..


That was for when the show was over they showed that at the end of everything, it was time to go off the air.

Ya they figured no one was up all night.....

Ya they figured no one was up all night.....
How about those on the nightshift?

Yea they forgot of those people......

How about those on the nightshift?


They were working , not watching tv

Sometimes if you couldn't sleep the only things on TV at 2am were those late night adult programs.

Sometimes if you couldn't sleep the only things on TV at 2am were those late night adult programs.
... back in the 1970s?

They were working , not watching tv
I cannot speak for the 1970s, but when I was on nightshift work in the late 1980s (and the 1990s), we had a TV lounge to watch television during our breaks, and in 1988, I remember watching the Jamaican bobsleigh team at the Calgary Winter Olympics (later to become the subject of the film "Cool Runnings".

... back in the 1970s?

I believe so, I'm not too sure.

Sometimes if you couldn't sleep the only things on TV at 2am were those late night adult programs.

... back in the 1970s?

I believe so, I'm not too sure.
Were you watching adult television as a young child?

Were you watching adult television as a young child?

I turned 5 years of age in 1979 and at around 2am I was in bed.