Did you set your TiVo or DVR to record the "American Idol" finale? If so, you probably got a rude surprise as the recording switched off just minutes before the impish Ryan Seacrest crowned Jordin Sparks. Brutal!

Turns out you're not alone—untold thousands of time-shifting Idol viewers suffered through the interminable two-hour finale (OK, what was up with that Sgt. Pepper's "tribute"?), only to miss the end when the live show ran several minutes long. I was lucky—I happened to start watching my Idol recording about 45 minutes into the actual show, so while my DVR stopped taping at 10 p.m. on the dot, the digital cache caught the final minutes.

Naturally, message boards immediately lit up with posts from incensed American Idol fans. A reporter at the San Jose Mercury News went so far as to contact a Fox spokesman, who dutifully apologized but added, "with any live broadcast—the Oscars, the Emmys, a football game—there is no guarantee it will end on time and this was a live broadcast."

So, who should we get mad at here? Hmmmm… I hate to say it, but in this case, I find myself agreeing with the Fox exec. If you're setting your TiVo or DVR to record a live show (particularly a sporting event), make sure to add a generous time cushion at the end—say an hour or so, at the very least. And if you're taping a show that's running after a live event—in my case, the last season of "The Amazing Race" on CBS, which was regularly shoved back an hour or more (along with "60 Minutes") because of NFL football—you might want to add extra recording time on the end as well.

That said, in the case of those ridiculous "super-sized" episodes (which always feel padded to me anyways), the electronic programming guide on your DVR should catch that. (I'm using the DVR provided by Time Warner Cable here in New York, and I haven't had any trouble this year.) If your recording of, say, the needlessly long "Office" finale ended early, by all means—call your cable company or the folks at TiVo to complain.

Related:
Irate 'American Idol' fans shocked as DVR recordings miss ending [San Jose Mercury News]