playing beat the clock with the city gangs
Hello. In an American movie I heard this piece of dialogue:

Male newscaster: It's daylight savings time again. Set your clocks one hour ahead or tomorrow evening you may find yourself out after curfew.
Female newscaster: l always get them mixed up, whether to go forward or backward.
Male newscaster: Ha ha ha! That's great, Vanna. Andy, how's it look out there?
Andy (weather presenter): Oh, you two are crazy. But, hey, we really don't want any of our viewers playing beat the clock with the city gangs. Our ratings might go down. Ha ha!

Could you explain the weather man's joke, please? What does he mean by "playing beat the clock with the city gangs" and why would their rating go down?

A little context: the movie takes place in an earthquake-crippled Los Angeles in 2007 and it's overrun with punks and gangs.

Thank you.

Question

playing beat the clock with the city gangs
Hello. In an American movie I heard this piece of dialogue:

Male newscaster: It's daylight savings time again. Set your clocks one hour ahead or tomorrow evening you may find yourself out after curfew.
Female newscaster: l always get them mixed up, whether to go forward or backward.
Male newscaster: Ha ha ha! That's great, Vanna. Andy, how's it look out there?
Andy (weather presenter): Oh, you two are crazy. But, hey, we really don't want any of our viewers playing beat the clock with the city gangs. Our ratings might go down. Ha ha!

Could you explain the weather man's joke, please? What does he mean by "playing beat the clock with the city gangs" and why would their rating go down?

A little context: the movie takes place in an earthquake-crippled Los Angeles in 2007 and it's overrun with punks and gangs.

Thank you.

Answer

Probably, it means “hurrying to get safely home before dark” (when it becomes more dangerous to be outside, where the gangs are).  The ratings would go down because the viewers who are late getting safely home would get killed, and so there would be fewer viewers to watch the news show.

Answer

Hello Nikita

No idea what Marina wrote, but I do agree with John. 😉
"To beat the clock" means to do or finish something quickly before a particular time, in this case, to get home before the gangs are out on the street.
When they say "not to play beat the clock" they mean not to have a competition with the gangs who will be outside first.

Hope this helps.

Answer

Погодник не хочет, чтобы зрители играли в догонялки «кто успеет раньше»: они - попасть домой до комендантского часа, или бандиты - получить себе припозднившуюся жертву. Он считает (оправданно, по-моему) что выраженным вслух сомнениям переводить часы вперёд или назад в прямом эфире не место - никогда не знаешь насколько внимательны слушатели, а мужики вообще психологически больше предрасположены запоминать то, что сказано женским, а не мужским голосом, и как следствие, могут упустить из виду слова мужчины и запомнить только слова женщины. Учитывая человеческую природу обвинять в своих ошибках кого угодно, кроме себя, виноватым окажется новостной канал, а не сам человек. А человек, если выживет, молчать не будет: «Даже в новостях не знают толком, куда переводить часы!!!» => рейтинг канала падает.