Date comparison going wrong, wrong, wrong

Hi all, I am having a problem with comparing time. I am using the following: $todaydate = date("D, M jS, Y g:i:s a"); $showenddate = date("D, M jS, Y g:i:s a", strtotime($showsRecord['end_date'])); if ($todaydate > $showenddate): echo "The date of the show has not yet arrived"; else: echo "The show has ended"; endif; The problem that I am encountering is that PHP is rendering the reverse of the equation. For example: If today's date is *11 Nov 2012* and the show's end date is *18 Nov 2012*, the message that I am getting is *the show has ended* which is wrong. A test example is at http://www.lakesidesurrey.co.uk/test.php. You can also me what I am doing wrong? Thanks Terry