In embodiments of live television playback optimizations, streaming video content is received for distribution to a client device that is implemented to playback a video content stream for display. The video content stream is associated with a content manifest file that identifies video segments of the video content stream. An input can be received from the client device to switch from the video content stream to a new video content stream, and video segments of the new video content stream are buffered. A new content manifest file that correlates to the buffered video segments of the new video content stream is generated. The new content manifest file can then be published to the client device to indicate that a minimum of buffered video segments have been buffered for distribution to the client device before the minimum of buffered video segments have been buffered.