Dream Tropes Wiki/Credits Pushback

You know what's Credits Pushback ... where they squeeze the credits into a tiny fraction of the screen and show ads in the rest. If you are using a DVR and that has a "zoom" feature, you might be able to pick out things like who shot the thing (!), and who played "Pretty Older Woman".

Very popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it seems to have lessened recently with new programs, due to the fact that modern end-credits have been reduced to, basically, a Vanity Plate, perhaps in response to this trend. Channels which mostly show repeats of older shows, however, have this in spades. It's vaguely rude to the creators of the show whose names are obscured, though in the Internet age if anyone is interested in finding out who the Second Assistant Director was or who played "Pretty Older Women" these days, the feeling is they can just look it up on IMDb.

The ad shown in the rest of the screen is always a promo for the station or a particular program on the station, often with innuendo and double-entendre humor (i.e., never "stay tuned for (name of show)," sometimes with a mundane-by-comparison-but-still-perhaps-humorous plot that was common in the old days), and never for something that would actually give the station money. An interesting thing, however, is that on networks that do this, this is generally the only advertisement shown between one show and the next; once the pushed credits are over, the next show immediately starts, greatly reducing the amount of time a viewer isn't "attached" to a show and likely to turn the station. On those that don't do this, the very same advertisement appears a few seconds later. On some networks, the credits are pushed back for the start of the next program, to prevent channel switching (this is particularly common if the next program happens to be another episode of the program just ending). A variation of this happen if a channel happens to air movies (like FX, TNT or Freeform): The beginning of the next movie/TV show plays while the movie's end credits are pushed back.

In some cases, the studio doesn't play an ad, but instead runs a preview of the upcoming evening news, especially if the show just ending immediately precedes the news.

It should be noted that rarely is this controlled by the studio which made the show, and was far more often done by the network or, in the case of syndication, local affiliate which is showing the episode, often placing news teasers in the other "window". This variant was notably parodied in The Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Famous".

This is especially annoying if a show tends to do The Stinger during the Credits Roll, and is squished so you can't see it. What, you have the vision and resolution necessary to get a good view anyway? Oh, screw you, we'll just make the original audio inaudible. I bet you miss that credits music now!

Also referred to as "Credit Squeeze" (Charlie Brooker often uses this term) or "Credit Crunch" (after the term for the 2008 Global Recession).

There are two common versions of this: the broadcaster will simply squish the credits to the side, or the bottom of the screen, run a promo alongside them, and maybe give them back the whole screen by the time the Vanity Plates (considered by broadcasters the most important part of the credits) appear. Some networks, however, show the plates first, then cut to a specially designed display with the credits on them. In the case of shows with long credit lists, such as movies, it's common for the closing credits to zip by at light speed.

Warning: As this trope concerns endings of shows, unmarked spoilers follow.

See also Commercial Pop-Up.

## Examples

### El Kadsreian Television

* The El TV Kadsre (which first started using this in 2011) and Banushen Television (which started using this in 2006) play the credits text scrolling from top to bottom, like the Canadian channel CTV had, but in a faster pace than what CTV did.
* TV 6 (starting in 1993), TTV (starting in 1991) and CPN (starting in 1990) makes use of the trope, but in credits text, like with most other American channels.
* Viva Television, starting in 1991 had the credits text scrolling from left to right.
* RGN and RTV first using this in 1986, used credits squeezed to show a promo.
* Many cable channels like Star TV are horrible offenders. Star never showed credits after 1995. Instead they show promos of other Star TV programming.