| the hours, generally between 8 and 11 p.m., usually having the largest audience of the day. |
| prime time n. The evening hours, generally between 7 and 11 P.M., when the largest television audience is available. prime'-time' (prīm'tīm') adj. |
prime time
(From TV programming) Normal high-usage hours on a time-sharing system; the day shift. Avoidance of prime time was traditionally given as a major reason for night mode hacking. The rise of the personal workstation has rendered this term, along with time-sharing itself, almost obsolete. The hackish tendency to late-night hacking runs has changed not a bit.
[The Jargon File]
(1995-01-18)