No, it's not the start of a dumb joke. I'm sincerely asking you good folks at TVS the question, because it seems like the answer would be the same since Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb: about half a second.

Somehow, NBC executives think it takes a lot longer than that: an hour, to be exact. That's how long tonight's special, Christmas in Rockefeller Center, will last. The 74th Rock Center tree-lighting ceremony, hosted by Ann Curry and Al Roker, will be padded with performances Christina Aguilera, Taylor Hicks, Enya, John Legend, Sarah McLachlan, and others. If you live in the New York area, you'll actually get two hours to bask in the tree's darkness; WNBC will begin airing their special at 7, and the rest of the country will join them at 8. And you thought New Yorkers moved faster than the rest of the country.

Anyway, all the performances lead up to the climactic last thirty seconds of the show, when [SPOILER ALERT!] the tree will be lit. Not sure what they're going to do with the last twenty-nine-and-a-half seconds, but I'm sure they'll think of something.