If you grew up watching British TV, you’ll know what ‘watershed’ means. It’s that time in the evening – 9pm, traditionally – after which the figurative (and literal, sometimes) gloves come off. There’s effing and jeffing all over the show, blood and guts strewn everywhere, and you’re falling over naked bodies. Or maybe that’s just the TV shows I’ve been watching.
But why is this line between family-friendly TV and X-rated adult-only programming called ‘the watershed’?
Well, it’s pleasingly literal. The term ‘watershed’ comes from geography, and refers to a ridge or boundary that separates one drainage area from another – so rain falling on one side flows one way while rain falling on the other side goes somewhere else entirely. The word has been around since at least the early 19th century, and is made up of ‘water’ (obviously) and ‘shed’ in the sense of ‘to divide’ or ‘to part’ (so nothing to do with that place you keep your tools). That idea of a clear dividing line is exactly why UK broadcasters borrowed ‘watershed’.
Watershed times vary all over the world. For example, in Australia, it’s much earlier than here – 7.30 pm. While in Italy, they save the smut til much later, at 10.30 pm. We definitely have the best name for it though, with the exception of the US who call it the ‘safe harbor’, although that’s industry jargon that most audiences wouldn’t recognise. In Australia, it’s just called ‘adult viewing time’ – very on the nose and therefore on brand from the country that brought us the Great Sandy Desert. In France, it’s ‘heure de protection des mineurs’, which you can probably figure out even if you don’t speak French. And in Germany, it’s efficiently called ‘youth protection’. Compared with those, ‘watershed’ is unusually elegant. It’s abstract, metaphorical and euphemistic – a very British way of saying ‘put the kids to bed, things are about to get a little bit rude’.