In broadcast programming, dayparting is the practice of dividing the broadcast day into several parts, in which a different type of radio programming or television show appropriate for that time period is aired. Television programs are most often geared toward a particular demography, and what the target audience typically engages in at that time.
North America On radio Nielsen Audio (known as Arbitron until it merged with Nielsen Holdings in 2013), the leading audience measurement service in the United States, divides a weekday into five dayparts: morning drive time (6:00–10:00 a.m.), midday (10:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.), afternoon drive (3:00–7:00 p.m.), evenings (7:00 p.m.–midnight) and overnight (midnight–6:00 a.m.).
In radio broadcasting through most of the 1990s, dayparting was also used for censorship purposes. Many songs that were deemed unsuitable for young listeners were played only during the late evening or overnight hours, when children were presumably asleep. Even today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dictates less stringent decency requirements for programming aired between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time.
The drive time dayparts coincide with rush hour; these dayparts are traditionally the most listened-to portions of the schedule, since these are the times when most people are in their cars, where vehicle audio remain nearly ubiquitous. Most stations (both talk and music) air local programming in one or both drive time slots. The midday, or "at work" slot, has in recent years become particularly prone to voice-tracking, as large station ownership groups cut costs and use supposedly local DJs at multiple stations (often in different time zones). Music stations often are careful not to repeat songs during the midday shift, as they generally have a captive audience, and will often use "9 to 5 No Repeat Workdays" and all-request or specialty lunch hours to lure listeners and air a broader variety of music. Evenings are a popular time for syndicated programs, while overnights are generally automated, either with or without a voice-tracked DJ, though there are a few niche programs that target special audiences in the overnight and early morning hours (Coast to Coast AM, Red Eye Radio and The National Farm Report, among them). On weekends, music stations often air syndicated programming, without regard to time slots (though Saturday nights often remain live with either local or syndicated hosts, especially on oldies and country music stations, to take requests) and talk stations air niche network shows or brokered programming. Religious programming often airs on Sunday mornings.
In talk radio, where voice tracking is impossible and syndicated content is live and national, these lines blur somewhat. The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show (formerly The Rush Limbaugh Show from 1988 to 2021) airs in a time slot that is in midday in all time zones, but other than that and overnight shows such as Coast to Coast AM, a show that airs in a slot corresponding to afternoon drive time in the Pacific Time Zone (for instance, The Lars Larson Show) would fall into a less-listened-to evening time slot on the East Coast. Similarly, a show that airs during early midday on the East Coast (such as the Glenn Beck Program) would be aired during the morning drive time period on the West Coast, and may not live up to the expectations of listeners expecting local, informative content. The general solution for this problem is to broadcast delay programming to fit schedules, though another problem develops where West Coast listeners are unable to interact with those programs unless they stream them live from a station east of them, or they have a live video simulcast via a television channel or streaming services.
On television
In the United States, dayparting is by far the most common among the Big Three television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS), all three of which continue to produce programming for a wide array of audiences (a programming strategy known as full-service radio). This is also generally true of other countries where the major terrestrial broadcasters have more general audiences.
Cable and satellite channels, most of which cater to smaller niche audiences, generally use much simpler programming strategies: infomercials in the morning, rerun (often in block programming or marathon format) in the daytime, and feature programming in prime time, replayed in late night (though this structure varies, some channels may opt not to lease out certain time periods to infomercials and program overnight and morning time periods with entertainment programs instead). United States cable news outlets typically program a network-style morning show, rolling news coverage in the daytime with opinion programming or long-form documentaries at night; ESPN follows a similar format, but with sporting events in prime time, while its opinion programs air primarily on sister outlet ESPN2. Stations such as MTV, BET and VH1 that feature music programming may devote their morning and/or midday blocks to music videos. Children's channels such as Disney Channel and Nickelodeon generally air programs for preschool children during the early morning hours in the form of blocks such as Nick Jr. and Disney Junior, PBS carries a similar lineup called PBS Kids, while broadcast networks carry syndicated content; some air older programs (such as reruns of classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry on Cartoon Network) at midday while children are at school, while programs for older school-age children and high school-aged teenagers air in the late afternoon slot. During prime time, programs that are generally aimed at the entire family (such as movies, which Disney Channel often airs) are common. Cartoon Network switches from children's programming content later in the evening to carry adult-oriented live-action/animation block Adult Swim, which runs through late night.
Daytime On television, like on radio, the day is divided into similar dayparts, although the times have been blurred somewhat. In general, breakfast television programs air between 7:00 and 10:00 a.m.; on television network, these are usually long-form news programs featuring entertainment, light fare and features aimed toward women. Until the 1970s or so, children's programs such as Captain Kangaroo aired in this time slot (since that time, however, the school day has started earlier, making such programs less viable).
After breakfast comes daytime television, which targets college students, older retirees and the ever-shrinking base of stay-at-home moms and housewives; the soap opera, tabloid talk show, court show and (much more rarely since the 1990s) the game show are popular genres in this daypart. In the United States and Canada, a local midday news broadcasting also airs during the noon hour on most stations as well (this is not always the case; some stations may schedule their midday newscasts up to one hour earlier). PBS and other noncommercial public broadcasting networks generally broadcast educational programs aimed at children, especially toddlers and preschool children (such as Sesame Street) throughout the early and later part of the daytime slot, while some show other alternative programs such as cooking programs during the midday period. Cable and satellite television networks generally broadcast an occasional movie during the daytime slot or acquired programs during prime time.
The later part of the daytime slot can sometimes be targeted at children ages 7–12 and teenagers ages 13–16 when they come home from school. The U.S. networks Fox and The WB had children's program blocks during the mid-1990s into the early 2000s, and even prior to that, CBS's Match Game exploited this audience to set ratings records in the 1970s. PBS traditionally broadcasts educational children's programs until approximately 5:00 p.m. in most areas, some PBS stations broadcast children's programs until 6:00 p.m., and some even until 7:00 p.m..
From 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. (in the United States, this can sometimes be as early as 4:00 p.m.), newscasts are usually shown on most television stations. Local news is usually coupled with a half-hour network newscast and possibly a syndicated news program. Unlike morning news shows, these are more generally targeted programs and feature more hard news stories (network evening newscasts, unlike their local counterparts, tend to limit weather and sports coverage unless it is a notable news story). In the United States, stations affiliated with minor networks, or those that have no network affiliation at all, usually air syndicated sitcom reruns or continue daytime programming during this daypart. Following the news, prime time begins with what is usually referred to as the "fringe time" or "access period" (so named after the Prime Time Access Rule, former legislation in the United States which previously required networks to not show network-supplied programming in that hour). In the United States (and Canada, to a certain extent), two game shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have dominated this time slot since the 1980s, and they usually compete with syndicated entertainment newspaper magazines (such as Entertainment Tonight) and syndicated reruns of popular primetime programming like Seinfeld and Friends. Additional local newscasts have become increasingly popular in this time slot.
Evening Prime time is the highest-profile television daypart, from 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 or 11:00 p.m., depending on the network and time zone. The highest rated programs on television often air during prime time, and almost all scripted programming (except soap operas, game shows, and more recently, sketch comedy shows) air during the prime time slots. Occasionally, especially during the 1980s and in the 2000s, programs that were "daytime oriented" sometimes enter the prime time daypart, such as the popular nighttime soap opera Dallas and the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Usually the main reason for the high profile of prime time television is due to the fact that many people who come home from work and school tend to watch television rather than engage in any other activity.
In North America, Friday nights are often considered to be the "Friday night death slot", due to the concept that many shows scheduled on or moved to Friday nights would not last long before cancellation due to low ratings. Some shows have achieved success on Fridays even with the notion of the "death slot" (examples include CBS's Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods and MacGyver, programs within the now-defunct TGIF lineup, and more recently Shark Tank, both aired on ABC in the U.S.). Other "death slots" include Saturday nights, the 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m. weekday time slots (at least during the 1980s; both time slots have since been abandoned by all networks and given to local news or syndication), and the time slot or slots immediately opposite popular shows such as American Idol or the Super Bowl (see also Super Bowl counterprogramming). The phenomenon of fewer viewers on Friday and Saturday is in part because most people (particularly the younger viewers that advertisers often seek) are usually not home to watch television on Friday and Saturday nights as they participate in leisure activities on those days, and as a result, programs that air during this time usually receive low ratings. However, some cable channels aimed at children, teenagers or preadolescence audiences (such as Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel) have experienced success with original programs that they commonly air in the perceived Friday and Saturday night death slots; Nickelodeon in particular, has aired first-run teen programs during Saturday prime time since 1992 with the creation of the SNICK block (later renamed TeenNick from 2004 to 2009), as well as ABC's "TGIF" block from the 1980s and '90s.