system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Non-American here, why are television broadcasting times shown in formats such as 8/7 Central?

Instead of "7 Central" (if CST is the time zone the commercial was shown) or "8 pm" (and opt out the central) or just simply customize any format like 8/5 Pacific or 8/6 Mountain.

Edit: Yes I know there are 4 time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific. But why the odd Eastern/Central pair? Since I thought there are a significant amount of people on the Pacific Coast. Or are the public just too daft to convert time?
gpt
It's because some stations adjust their broadcast for the earlier two timezones, where they almost never do for CST.

i.e. If Breaking Bad is on at 8p EST it will be on at 7p CST, but they will wait until 8p PST to broadcast in Cali. The only real consistent exception here is with sports obviously. You see the east/central instead of west/mountain format because you're in Europe most likely and get the east coast version of US tv.