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Why don't we see certain shows in syndication?

P

Prescott Joe

I was a fan of TBS/TNT's "BABYLON FIVE" but once it aired,
never saw it again on broadcast television.

I was also a fan of SCI-FI Channels "BATTLESTAR GALACTICA"
which I never saw again after it's original airing.

Finally, "DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES" never saw it again after
the series ended.

WHY????
 
Interesting question. Typically, for a series to make it to syndication, you need a minimum of five seasons of episodes. You need a certain level of success during its first run. You need a distributor. And you need a plan to market the show to affiliates.

Babylon Five went 5 seasons, and was a moderate success. It was produced by Warner Brothers TV, and they do a ton of syndication. I gather the company felt it was more profitable to sell the series as videos direct to consumers rather than pursue syndication.

Battlestar Galactica didn't get the five seasons minimum. Universal had used the name and franchise for a number of platforms, from the TV series to films to games. They also are available as videos.

The one thing that is becoming a new platform for syndication, and it may be the way for Desperate Housewives, is On Demand through Hulu and Netflix. On Demand TV has potential for being more profitable than local syndication. It has the additional benefit of being low cost, and so not dependent on a certain number of episodes or attracting a large number of affiliated stations. I saw that Babylon Five is available on Hulu now.
 
nomadcowatbk said:
Half hour comedies without a lot of topical humor tend to last the longest in syndication
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That's probably why old black-and-white "fossils" like I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show (thru 1964-65), and The Honeymooners did so well for so many decades.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Regarding "Desperate Housewives", dramas with story arcs usually don't do well in reruns.
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Yes, it seems like shows that are more standalone do better. Lost, for instance, was a hugely popular show when on, did not do well in syndication. I'm guessing people don't want to be tied down to having to watch a show every day, they prefer to watch something where they can miss an episode and not be lost the next day. I don't remember shows like Dallas or Dynasty being rerun much back in the 80s, so I don't think that is a new thing.

As far as syndication, it is not the number of seasons that is required, it is the number of episodes. (since you can have short seasons, you can't count those the same.) It used to be 100 episodes were considered the norm for being able to syndicate, now it is down to 88 as an acceptable number. (which would translate to 4 full seasons). The web sites that predict renewal/cancel of TV shows such as tvbythenumbers use this fact when deciding if a low rated show might be renewed to get it to 88. Typically, networks will renew a show if one more season can get it to 88, where they might cancel a show with the same ratings if it is in the first or second year.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Regarding "Desperate Housewives", dramas with story arcs usually don't do well in reruns.
Click to expand...

"Desperate Housewives" had a very good, and generally hilarious, first year and then fell off the wagon in subsequent years. It largely dropped the black humor which made the first year so good and got into various social scenarios which most viewers probably didn't find attractive (more "Dallas-ie" if you want to put it another way).

I am not normally a viewer of this type of show but thought that first year was great. The 2nd and successive years were huge disappointments.
 
One of my old faves was St. Elsewhere. Haven't seen it in reruns anywhere in quite a while. I remember Bravo and maybe T.V. Land. Don't remember. But I found an old VHS tape of the pilot episode for $1.99 (I think) at a used record store and picked it up. I was not a fan yet when the pilot episode originally aired, so I had never seen it.

That said, I believe that St. Elsewhere was a great television show for its time, but I also believe that subsequent hospital dramas (at least the ones that I have watched) have been a bit more realistic.
 
Drama's are more in weekend Syndication Desperate Housewives was on the weekend for a couple of seasons in fall of 2008-10 I believe maybe it was longer I know Wood TV aired it like 2AM late Saturday/Sunday.
 
Adding to his answer, you also have to consider which shows are memorable enough to make it in local syndication (ie. Can't be dated). As well, sometimes, popular syndicated shows tend to be pretty expensive to clear with production companies and music(s) involved in the audio track to be cleared by the record compan(y/ies) involved.

LOST may have had a stellar production value, but when the now-defunct G4 TV (video game channel) saw the show was in syndication, they had to pay a hefty price to ABC to re-air it on TV.

Another case was Daria, a teen animated series on MTV from the early 2000s; their was so much copyrighted music shoved into the show, that when TeenNick (then known as The N) and MTV2 reaired it years later, ALL music was scrapped from the program and generic, royalty-free music was added in because it was too costly to relicense the original music.

Syndication is one expensive hit-or-miss ordeal.
 
butteredcereal said:
Adding to his answer, you also have to consider which shows are memorable enough to make it in local syndication (ie. Can't be dated). As well, sometimes, popular syndicated shows tend to be pretty expensive to clear with production companies and music(s) involved in the audio track to be cleared by the record compan(y/ies) involved.

LOST may have had a stellar production value, but when the now-defunct G4 TV (video game channel) saw the show was in syndication, they had to pay a hefty price to ABC to re-air it on TV.

Another case was Daria, a teen animated series on MTV from the early 2000s; their was so much copyrighted music shoved into the show, that when TeenNick (then known as The N) and MTV2 reaired it years later, ALL music was scrapped from the program and generic, royalty-free music was added in because it was too costly to relicense the original music.

Syndication is one expensive hit-or-miss ordeal.
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Hmmm...Seems like there was a comedy about a radio station that had that problem. It was set somewhere in Ohio, if I recall.
 
I never saw Newhart (80's) come up in syndication on local stations and there were only short runs on cable until it landed on Antenna TV in recent years.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
Hmmm...Seems like there was a comedy about a radio station that had that problem. It was set somewhere in Ohio, if I recall.
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This issue seems absolutely crazy to me. Instead of the greedy record companies getting something for their moldy oldies they get bupkis. Happens time and again.

BTW, you can find that original comedy featuring an AM radio station in Ohio on the Internet complete with original music. The video quality unfortunately is VHS but it is watchable.
 
anotherguy said:
I never saw Newhart (80's) come up in syndication on local stations and there were only short runs on cable until it landed on Antenna TV in recent years.
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I don't recall "Newhart" airing in off-net syndication here in Los Angeles, although I recall KDOC carrying it, but it was years after it already entered syndication. Two stations I knew for sure that carried "Newhart" reruns were WAGA Atlanta (late nights in-between the 11pm news and Arsenio) and WGN--both on its Chicago and Superstation feeds.
 
I recall 'Newhart' had a short run in syndication in about 1986 or '87. While the series as a whole has been regarded very highly by pop culture writers in the last 20 years or so, when 'Newhart' first went into off-network reruns, it may have suffered a bit in comparison with the '70s 'Bob Newhart Show'. On the other haand, 'Newhart' was still doing well on CBS at that point. Maybe the reruns were a little too 'fresh'?

Another '80s hit that basically went nowhere in syndication was 'The Cosby Show'. Long before Cosby's personal life sank him, and this series, without a trace, 'The Cosby Show' made news for a lucrative contract for the rights to reruns of the first few seasons, But within a few months, viewers were tired of the older episodes...and not long after, the still-sizable NBC audience began to decline, as well.
 
onairb2014 said:
I recall 'Newhart' had a short run in syndication in about 1986 or '87. While the series as a whole has been regarded very highly by pop culture writers in the last 20 years or so, when 'Newhart' first went into off-network reruns, it may have suffered a bit in comparison with the '70s 'Bob Newhart Show'. On the other haand, 'Newhart' was still doing well on CBS at that point. Maybe the reruns were a little too 'fresh'?

Another '80s hit that basically went nowhere in syndication was 'The Cosby Show'. Long before Cosby's personal life sank him, and this series, without a trace, 'The Cosby Show' made news for a lucrative contract for the rights to reruns of the first few seasons, But within a few months, viewers were tired of the older episodes...and not long after, the still-sizable NBC audience began to decline, as well.
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Cosby show marathons were all over Nick@Nite 10 years ago, maybe Cosby just under performed in syndicated , some syndicated shows have done bad on local stations but well on cable networks,
 
nomadcowatbk said:
Cosby show marathons were all over Nick@Nite 10 years ago, maybe Cosby just under performed in syndicated , some syndicated shows have done bad on local stations but well on cable networks,
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Just like with Mama's Family when that show was syndicated among local TV stations. I always had to hunt to find that show but when it came to TBS then the show became popular.
 
WKRP was on Antenna TV with Original Music Intact. I know most of the 70's and 80's and some 90's shows on VHS/Beta, DVD/BD have had music replaced with bad covers or cheap/free music (however Knight Rider's original NBC run had used bad and cheap or free covers)
 
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