When the "Cosby Show" went into off-network syndication in 1988, stations like WWOR and KCOP (both before they came under the same ownership) paid hundreds of thousands of dollars PER EPISODE to carry the show; I remember seeing WWOR paying about $460,000 per episode (and up to that point when it entered syndication, only four seasons have been produced). I wouldn't call the "Cosby Show" reruns in off-net syndication a failure...hell, there were stations still the show up until his legal troubles arised.
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Why don't we see certain shows in syndication?
- Thread starter Prescott Joe
- Start date
When the "Cosby Show" went into off-network syndication in 1988, stations like WWOR and KCOP (both before they came under the same ownership) paid hundreds of thousands of dollars PER EPISODE to carry the show; I remember seeing WWOR paying about $460,000 per episode (and up to that point when it entered syndication, only four seasons have been produced). I wouldn't call the "Cosby Show" reruns in off-net syndication a failure...hell, there were stations still the show up until his legal troubles arised.
but they probably expected the massive ratings of the Cosby Show to carry over into syndication
Certainly, and given that this was pre-Syndex, WWOR also had the show on their national feed (and was one of the few shows they still carried on the bird post-Syndex)...although they probably charged NYC advertising rates, the station probably still re-cooped enough revenue off of the show to make it a good investment--plus having MCA/Universal's deep pockets also helped too.
For what it's worth...
Reruns of The Cosby Show began selling to stations in November 1986 (thirty years ago!) on a blind-bidding, per market basis. One hundred-twenty-five episodes came online in October 1988, for a 182-week (3.5 year) license term.
The syndicator (Viacom) set a minimum reserve price for each market, which interested stations were to match without going over. The stations were also allowed to submit bids of the reserve price-plus-multiples of five percent, and one with an alternative price.
Some of the winners (and the price per episode, plus the weekly market reserve figure) include:
New York: (W)WOR-TV ($349,440; $125k reserve)
Los Angeles: KCOP ($327,600; $150k reserve)
Chicago: WFLD-TV ($196,500; $100k reserve)
Philadelphia: WCAU-TV ($125,220; $86k reserve)
San Francisco: KPIX ($167,440; $80k reserve)
Boston: WCVB-TV ($150,000; $60k reserve)
Cincinnati: WLWT ($43,680; $20k reserve)
Detroit: WDIV ($101,920; $50k reserve)
Phoenix: KPHO-TV ($81,540; $36k reserve)
Seattle: KIRO-TV ($58,240; $26k reserve)
Minneapolis-St. Paul: KARE ($55,330; $38k reserve)
Stations in several large markets, including Cleveland and Tampa Bay, passed on the show during Viacom's first go-around shopping the series. There was a backlash against the high rights fees, and stations in these markets waited until prices dropped in the second wave of primarily smaller-market sales.
But Cosby's high prices set a precedent: Who's the Boss?, which also went into syndication in the fall of '88, commanded similar prices when it went on the market not long after Cosby did.
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In regards to Newhart's short run, I have a couple of TV guides (through Ebay) from 89-92 that were airing Newhart in syndication in their respective markets. It didn't seem like a short run to me.
Newhart wasn't picked up in New York City, but it was on in Boston and Hartford. Not getting clearance in the no. 1 market may have played a role in its syndication run being brief.
In a city where I saw a baseball game on my 16th birthday. Flew from Philly to that city that morning for that purpose. Biggest birthday surprise of my life.
ixnay
WKRP never lasted long in syndication in Memphis with short runs on WPTY (Now WAVN) 24, WHBQ 13, and WMC 5, and reruns on cable (Usually paired with Newhart) never lasted very long either, until it was on Antenna TV, but it's even gone from there now, even though Newhart is still there.
Maybe it was just me, but after that epic send-off to "Newhart" with psychologist Bob waking up from a dream next to Suzanne Pleshette realizing the entire series was a dream, I wasn't all that interested in the reruns. Dumb I realize but I wonder if that hurt the syndication effort (of course it was all fiction).
It not so much about the number of seasons as the number of episodes. The Munsters, The Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, Star Trek and many others lasted only 2 or 3 seasons, yet were all widely syndicated. Nowadays, with all of the stations seeking content, lower rated but longer lasting shows are appearing as part of "Classic TV" lineups. In years past, I doubt I would have seen shows like "My Mother The Car", "Car 54, Where Are You", and plenty of others that have been broadcast in the last 10-15 years, but had short shelf lives. In fact, I've seen a number of one season "classic" shows on tv lately. My guess is that those networks are finding that shows that were cancelled for low ratings are now looking acceptable when a show in today's environment can pull less than a 2.0 and still be considered a hit, let alone profitable.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, being astute enough to foresee the day when reruns would be a lucrative business, deliberately wrote and shot I Love Lucy in such a manner as to avoid dating it in any way.
They were astoundingly successful. Those episodes are now over sixty years old.
The world has changed tremendously, and the role of women in our society has evolved exponentially. But those shows still hold up amazingly well. People can still relate to them.
Whereas you can look at a rerun of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and the context for the humor is almost completely gone.
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Laugh-In was intended from the beginning to be nothing but topical humor - mostly societal and political. Much like the stuff Bob Hope did on his shows.
It's too bad those guys are all gone now because the current political environment would have provided them with unlimited material.
On that note, "Who's The Boss?" was supposed to have a clear-cut "Tony and Angela get married and live happily ever after" final episode, but there were concerns that it would have dampened viewers' interests in the syndicated reruns. Thus, the series finale had them reconciling after a temporary breakup.
Back in the days when I would collect out of town issues of TV Guides I do remember seeing in the listings reruns for That's Incredible and Real People ( actually More Real People ). Denver's KDVR would air That's Incredible at 5AM on Saturdays back in 1989 while Real People I don't remember seeing that show in listings for the bigger markets but in some of the smaller ones it was there such as Casper, Wyoming for example. The now defunct CBS Eye on People channel would air both shows in the late 90s.
WGN Chicago carried "Full House" with the other local Tribune O&Os (which at that time was only KTLA, WPIX, KWGN, and WGNO), but it didn't make it over to the Superstation side until the late 90s (probably by then, it was on its third or fourth rerun cycle). TBS also starting carrying Full House around the same time as Superstation WGN, if not a bit earlier.
Other than "Roseanne" and "Family Matters", I couldn't think of any other old ABC sitcom from that time period that had a lengthy, successful run in off-net syndication. "Growing Pains", "Step by Step", and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" all had decent-at-best runs in syndication, and I could remember how bad "Head of the Class" tanked in syndication, especially here in Los Angeles; KCOP carried "HotC" for less than a year, and it was never seen here locally again since (at least until Antenna TV starts showing it within the next few months). I could remember in the L.A. Times TV guide Q&A, someone asked why wasn't "HotC" shown anyone on KCOP; I forgot the answer as to why, other bad ratings (and it was sandwiched in-between "The Cosby Show" and "Growing Pains"), but they've referred the viewer to watch it on San Diego's KUSI.
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I guess 'HotC' seems more 'dated' than some of those other shows you mentioned. It's relentlessly '80s', with a lot of '60s preaching by Mr. Moore. (The forced 'banter' between Charlie and Alan, the 'young Republican preppie', was essentially a ripoff of Alex and Steven Keaton on 'Family Ties').
I used to watch it regularly in first run(in my teems), and thought it was good in spite of Howard Hesseman playing Charlie the 'wise old hippie'. I preferred the kids, and the principal, and felt the introduction of Billy Connolly in the final season was a great idea, at the wrong time.
I used to watch it regularly in first run(in my teems), and thought it was good in spite of Howard Hesseman playing Charlie the 'wise old hippie'. I preferred the kids, and the principal, and felt the introduction of Billy Connolly in the final season was a great idea, at the wrong time.
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