Difference between a slow cooker and a crock pot

Your best bet would be a dutch oven on a low to medium low heat in the oven. You could use a regular pot in the oven, but you'd need to stir it regularly (maybe every hour) to stop everything from sticking to the sides and burning.

From experience cooking chili in Crock-Pot brand slow cookers, each time you change the setting (at least from high to low or vice versa), it resets the timer. Also, of course, so does high->off->high.

So, (at least my Crock-Pots) would cook on low until midnight in your example.

Well, unless the power went out for three seconds. (It'd be off after the power blip.)

Personally, I've switched to non-"programmable" slow cookers.