100 episodes
Encyclopedia
In the U.S. television industry, 100 episodes is the traditional threshold at which point a television series becomes viable for syndication
. 100 episodes are advantageous for stripped
syndication because such shows can be sold for higher per-episode pricing; it also allows for 20 weeks of five-day-a-week
reruns without repeating an episode.
for years after they end production. Shows of limited profitability during their first run will still prove to be viable to the production company
if they can last 100 episodes. In recent years, this point is usually reached during a series' fifth season.
Shows of fewer episodes have become syndication successes. For example, Lost in Space
ceased production in 1968
after 84 episodes because it was becoming very expensive to produce. The original Star Trek
series had only 79 episodes available when it ended in 1969 but after syndication it spawned multiple feature films and five spin-off series. Extreme examples include The Prisoner
and Hondo
, both successfully syndicated for more than 30 years despite having only 17 episodes produced. Similarly, The Honeymooners
was syndicated with only 39 episodes produced, though later compilations of other Honeymooners sketches from The Jackie Gleason Show
s eventually brought this number to well over 100. The 1973-1974 series Dusty's Trail
only lasted 26 episodes yet has been repeated to this day due in part to its public domain
status, which makes it extremely cheap to repeat (although 20th Television
does own ancillary rights). More recently, Clueless
has been more successful in syndication than during its network run, even though only 62 episodes had been produced by the time the series ended in 1999
. The original 1978
series Battlestar Galactica
and its spin-off Galactica 1980
produced a combined 31 episodes, yet it not only remains in syndication but it also led to a 2003 reimagining that produced a 75-episode TV series.
The growth of cable and satellite television has prompted channels to rerun series more often, with fewer episodes. Reruns of a particular show may air multiple times a day, several days a week, despite having only one or two seasons of episodes produced.
In recent years, the 100-episode milestone has been lowered, to 88; shows within one season of reaching that milestone often offer a lower licensing price to the networks in order to make it to the 88-episode target. Shows that are within one season of reaching the milestone, but were marginal performers in network ratings, may be moved to graveyard slot
s such as Friday
or Saturday nights, in order to burn off
remaining episodes while still making some form of revenue from them prior to their sale into syndication; an example of this was in 2011, when Rules of Engagement
, which had 71 episodes and was a consistent top-50 series despite being a perpetual midseason replacement
with odd scheduling and frequent time slot changes, was scheduled to air in a new "Comedytime Saturday
" block on Saturday nights, a night that had not seen original scripted programming in nearly a decade. The renewal was reportedly to ensure enough episodes to reach the 88-episode threshold for syndication. (Rules never aired on Saturday night, instead moving to Thursday, again as a midseason replacement, to replace the quickly canceled How to Be a Gentleman
.)
.
There are also cases, such as Mad About You
and Newsradio
, where a series is expected to do well in syndication but ends up with disappointing Nielsen ratings
and revenue. Reasons include dated references in early seasons, or plotlines in later seasons that fall flat, causing the series to end up being defined by that one plot line or season rather than as a whole, changing the audience's perception.
and dramas are the most prevalent in syndicated reruns. Other programming genera follow different patterns.
of those shows, as it was viewed at the time as a more profitable practice than trying to sell reruns of daytime programming. The practice of rerunning some of the most popular game shows in syndication was rare, but not unheard of, in the 1970s and 1980s; Gambit
was rerun in 1978 and Match Game
was rerun in syndication in 1985. With the advent of cable channels, rerunning game shows has become more common; for instance, Merv Griffin's Crosswords
, which lasted one season and 225 episodes in syndication, has been continuously rerun from that point onward, either in syndication or on current channel FamilyNet
. GSN
reruns several game show
s that ran less than 100 episodes, including Greed
(44 episodes), Double Dare
(65 episodes), Dog Eat Dog
(26 episodes), and perhaps the most extreme case, Million Dollar Password
, which ran for only 12 episodes.
For series that are already out of production, most shows air their runs for a short period of time, then are pulled and replaced by another series from the archives. For weekly series, this practice dates to at least the 1960s, when Saturday morning cartoon
s would, after the end of their 13-week run, begin rerunning continuously for about a year until being replaced by the next show, either new or archival. After several years, once the previous generation of children outgrew the show, it could be reintroduced for the next younger generation by airing reruns. For shows that are rerun daily, the time span is usually on the order of months; Boomerang
, a channel that specializes in reruns of Saturday morning cartoons, changes its schedule approximately once a month to accommodate the short runs of many of the shows in its extensive library.
episodic nature of the shows, the game show
elements that come with competitive reality programs, and the "event" nature of first-run reality shows to have unique elements to them to appeal to audiences on their first runs on networks, all hamper attempts to give the programs a second life in syndication. For example, previous seasons of The Amazing Race
ran nightly on GSN
starting in 2005
, but with the winning team at the end of each season already known and thus the loss of the unexpected drama within each episode, not many viewers were drawn to the second-run episodes; in 2006, GSN bumped the repeats to overnights. MTV
's The Real World
also failed to generate much audience interest in a three-year syndicated run when offered to local stations, as MTV's tactic of frequent full-season marathons of the show on the network reduced the value of the episodes as more of a filler than a series. However, these marathon events, where networks such as MTV or VH1
have shown an entire season of a reality program in a block, have been successful enough for them to become common on the networks: in 2008, both channels have frequently broadcast a season of America's Next Top Model
in this fashion, airing all of the episodes in order in a single day. Reality series that originally aired on a cable channel also have the disadvantage of having been limited to a relatively small niche audience during their original run and not being popular to a wide enough audience to warrant airing it in reruns after its original run ends.
Additionally, NBC
's Fear Factor
(a reality series in which each episode was self-contained) was promoted by that network's syndication division as "repeat-proof" when the show was sold into syndication to local broadcast networks and FX
in 2004
, with some stations showing the program twice a day. However, after a strong start, and as NBC began to use Fear Factor to plug weaknesses within its schedule, the ratings for the show's repeats fell, and by the beginning of 2006
, FX had stopped airing Fear Factor (though it began to air in mid-morning again in the fall of 2006), and the show's syndicated run ended quietly in mid-September 2006.
There have been exceptions to this rule, the best-known being the widely syndicated COPS
, due to its extremely low cost, high volume of episodes, presence on a broadcast network during its original run, and self-contained documentary format.
A potential solution to this problem is re-version
ing, which takes the original source material and adds original content to create a new product. American Idol Rewind
, a re-version of the Fox reality competition American Idol
, has found success in syndication and cable reruns.
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
. 100 episodes are advantageous for stripped
Stripping (television)
In broadcast programming, stripping is the practice of running a television series at the same time daily , so that it appears as a strip straight across the weekly schedule...
syndication because such shows can be sold for higher per-episode pricing; it also allows for 20 weeks of five-day-a-week
Workweek and weekend
The workweek and weekend are those complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest respectively. The legal working week , or workweek , is the part of the seven-day week devoted to labor. In most Western countries it is Monday to Friday. The weekend comprises the two traditionally...
reruns without repeating an episode.
Successes
Syndication is often a profitable enterprise because series can be rerunRerun
A rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...
for years after they end production. Shows of limited profitability during their first run will still prove to be viable to the production company
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
if they can last 100 episodes. In recent years, this point is usually reached during a series' fifth season.
| Decade | Program | Episodes |
|---|---|---|
| 1950s | I Love Lucy I Love Lucy I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System... |
31 (1952-53 1952–53 United States network television schedule The 1952–53 United States network television schedule began in September of 1952 and ended in the spring of 1953.According to television historians Castleman and Podrazik , fall of 1953 marked a change in television when the networks began filling their schedules with "grade B" material... ) |
| 1960s | The Beverly Hillbillies The Beverly Hillbillies The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr.... |
36 (1963-64 1963-64 United States network television schedule This was the television schedule on all three networks for the fall season beginning in September 1963.ABC began its new fall schedule a week early, beating CBS and NBC out of the starting gate. New series debuting this week included sci-fi anthology The Outer Limits, police/lawyer series Arrest... ) |
| The Andy Griffith Show The Andy Griffith Show The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina... |
30 (1966-67 1966-67 United States network television schedule This was the television schedule on all three networks for the fall season beginning in September 1966. All times are Eastern and Pacific.New fall series are highlighted in bold.... ) |
|
| 1970s | All in the Family All in the Family All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended... |
24 (1974-75 1974-75 United States network television schedule This was the television schedule on all three commercial United States television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1974. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with a few exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.... ) |
| Happy Days Happy Days Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America.... |
26 (1978-79 1978-79 United States network television schedule This was the television schedule on all three commercial television networks in the United States for the fall season beginning in September 1978. All times are Eastern and Pacific.... ) |
|
| 1980s | Dallas Dallas (TV series) Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing... |
30 (1983-84 1983-84 United States network television schedule This was the television schedule on all three networks for the fall season beginning in September 1983. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.... ) |
| The Cosby Show The Cosby Show The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992... |
25 (1986-87 1986-87 United States network television schedule This was the United States television schedule on all three commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1986. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.... ) |
|
| 1990s | Cheers Cheers Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles... |
26 (1990-91 1990-91 United States network television schedule This was the television schedule on all four networks for the fall season beginning in September 1990. All times are Eastern and Pacific, with certain exceptions, such as Monday Night Football.New series are highlighted in bold.... ) |
| Seinfeld Seinfeld Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself... |
24 Seinfeld (season 6) Season six of Seinfeld, an American comedy television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on September 22, 1994, and concluded on May 18, 1995, on NBC... (1994–95) |
|
| 2000s | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer... |
23 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (season 4) The fourth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS on September 25, 2003 and ended May 20, 2004.-Notable cast members:-Episodes:-External links:* at TVShowsOnDVD.com.-See also:... (2003–04) |
| The Mentalist The Mentalist The Mentalist is an American police procedural television series which debuted on September 23, 2008, on CBS. The show was created by Bruno Heller, who is also the show's executive producer... |
23 (2008–09 2008–09 United States network television schedule The following is the 2008–2009 network television schedule for the six major English language broadcast networks in the United States. The schedule covers primetime hours from September 2008 through May 2009. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and... ) |
|
Shows of fewer episodes have become syndication successes. For example, Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
ceased production in 1968
1968 in television
The year 1968 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1968.For the American TV schedule, see: 1968-69 American network television schedule.-Events:...
after 84 episodes because it was becoming very expensive to produce. The original Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
series had only 79 episodes available when it ended in 1969 but after syndication it spawned multiple feature films and five spin-off series. Extreme examples include The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
and Hondo
Hondo (TV series)
Hondo is a Western television series starring Ralph Taeger, that aired in the United States on ABC during the 1967 fall season.-Overview:Hondo was based on the film of the same name starring John Wayne, which was in turn based on an early Louis L'Amour novel...
, both successfully syndicated for more than 30 years despite having only 17 episodes produced. Similarly, The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners
The Honeymooners is an American situation comedy television show, based on a recurring 1951–'55 sketch of the same name. It originally aired on the DuMont network's Cavalcade of Stars and subsequently on the CBS network's The Jackie Gleason Show hosted by Jackie Gleason, and filmed before a live...
was syndicated with only 39 episodes produced, though later compilations of other Honeymooners sketches from The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show
The Jackie Gleason Show is the name of a series of popular American network television shows that starred Jackie Gleason, which ran from 1952 to 1970.-Cavalcade of Stars:...
s eventually brought this number to well over 100. The 1973-1974 series Dusty's Trail
Dusty's Trail
Dusty's Trail is an American Western/comedy series that aired in syndication from September 1973 to March 1974. The series is set in the 19th century about a small group of travelers separated from their wagon train who become lost. Dusty's Trail stars Bob Denver as "Dusty" Boots, the assistant to...
only lasted 26 episodes yet has been repeated to this day due in part to its public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
status, which makes it extremely cheap to repeat (although 20th Television
20th Television
20th Television is an American television production and syndication company that was formed in 1992 by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, a division of the Fox Entertainment Group, part of News Corporation....
does own ancillary rights). More recently, Clueless
Clueless (TV series)
Clueless is a television series spun off from the 1995 teen film of the same name . The series originally premiered on ABC on September 20, 1996 as a part of the TGIF lineup during its first season...
has been more successful in syndication than during its network run, even though only 62 episodes had been produced by the time the series ended in 1999
1998–99 United States network television schedule
This was the United States broadcast television schedule on all six commercial television networks for the fall season beginning in September 1998. All times are Eastern and Pacific.New series highlighted in bold....
. The original 1978
1978 in television
The year 1978 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1978.For the American TV schedule, see: 1978-79 American network television schedule.-Events:...
series Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)
Battlestar Galactica is an American science fiction television series, created by Glen A. Larson. It starred Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict and ran for one season in 1978–79. After cancellation, its story was continued in 1980 as Galactica 1980 with Adama, Lieutenant Boomer and...
and its spin-off Galactica 1980
Galactica 1980
Galactica 1980 is a science fiction television series, and a spin-off from the 1978–1979 series Battlestar Galactica. It was first broadcast on the ABC network in the United States from January 27 to May 4, 1980.-Development:...
produced a combined 31 episodes, yet it not only remains in syndication but it also led to a 2003 reimagining that produced a 75-episode TV series.
The growth of cable and satellite television has prompted channels to rerun series more often, with fewer episodes. Reruns of a particular show may air multiple times a day, several days a week, despite having only one or two seasons of episodes produced.
In recent years, the 100-episode milestone has been lowered, to 88; shows within one season of reaching that milestone often offer a lower licensing price to the networks in order to make it to the 88-episode target. Shows that are within one season of reaching the milestone, but were marginal performers in network ratings, may be moved to graveyard slot
Graveyard slot
A graveyard slot is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually in the early morning hours of each day, when most people are asleep...
s such as Friday
Friday night death slot
The Friday night death slot is a perceived graveyard slot in American television, referring to the concept that a television program in the United States scheduled on Friday evenings is destined for imminent cancellation....
or Saturday nights, in order to burn off
Burning off
Burning off is the low-profile airing of otherwise-abandoned unaired television programs, usually by scheduling in far less important time slots or on less important sister stations...
remaining episodes while still making some form of revenue from them prior to their sale into syndication; an example of this was in 2011, when Rules of Engagement
Rules of Engagement (TV series)
Rules of Engagement is a sitcom that debuted on CBS on February 5, 2007, as a midseason replacement, immediately following Two and a Half Men, in the time slot that was occupied by now-cancelled The New Adventures of Old Christine...
, which had 71 episodes and was a consistent top-50 series despite being a perpetual midseason replacement
Midseason replacement
In American and Canadian television, a midseason replacement is a television series that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between January and May...
with odd scheduling and frequent time slot changes, was scheduled to air in a new "Comedytime Saturday
Comedytime Saturday
Comedytime Saturday is the official branding for a one-hour programming block that began with the 2011–12 United States network television schedule on CBS between 8 and 9 p.m. ET/PT on Saturday nights. The branding is only listed by industry sources as a placeholder for the time slot, and not as an...
" block on Saturday nights, a night that had not seen original scripted programming in nearly a decade. The renewal was reportedly to ensure enough episodes to reach the 88-episode threshold for syndication. (Rules never aired on Saturday night, instead moving to Thursday, again as a midseason replacement, to replace the quickly canceled How to Be a Gentleman
How to Be a Gentleman
How to Be a Gentleman is an American sitcom, which ran on CBS from Thursday, September 29, 2011 to October 15, 2011. Lead actor David Hornsby created the series, adapting the nonfiction book of the same name by John Bridges....
.)
Disappointments
Reaching the 100-episode milestone does not guarantee successful syndication; examples include Grace Under Fire and Yes, DearYes, Dear
Yes, Dear is a television sitcom that aired from October 2, 2000, to February 15, 2006, on CBS. It starred Anthony Clark, Jean Louisa Kelly, Mike O'Malley and Liza Snyder....
.
There are also cases, such as Mad About You
Mad About You
Mad About You is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 23, 1992 to May 24, 1999. The show starred Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a newly married couple in New York City. Reiser played Paul Buchman, a documentary film maker. Hunt played Jamie Stemple Buchman, a public relations specialist...
and Newsradio
NewsRadio
NewsRadio is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1995 to 1999. The series was created by executive producer Paul Simms, and was filmed in front of a studio audience at CBS Studio Center and Sunset Gower Studios...
, where a series is expected to do well in syndication but ends up with disappointing Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
and revenue. Reasons include dated references in early seasons, or plotlines in later seasons that fall flat, causing the series to end up being defined by that one plot line or season rather than as a whole, changing the audience's perception.
Niche genera
The 100-episode threshold is generally applied solely to scripted prime time programming, since sitcomsSituation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
and dramas are the most prevalent in syndicated reruns. Other programming genera follow different patterns.
Game shows
On rare occasions, game shows been rerun on broadcast television. Despite having very high output as far as numbers of episodes (a typical 13-week run of even an unsuccessful game show yielded 65 episodes), most networks instead opted to recycle the tapesWiping
Wiping or junking is a colloquial term for action taken by radio and television production and broadcasting companies, in which old audiotapes, videotapes, and telerecordings , are erased, reused, or destroyed after several uses...
of those shows, as it was viewed at the time as a more profitable practice than trying to sell reruns of daytime programming. The practice of rerunning some of the most popular game shows in syndication was rare, but not unheard of, in the 1970s and 1980s; Gambit
Gambit (game show)
Gambit is a television game show, created by Wayne Cruseturner and produced by Heatter-Quigley Productions, that originally ran on CBS from September 4, 1972 to December 10, 1976. A slightly retooled version, Las Vegas Gambit, aired on NBC from October 27, 1980 to November 27, 1981, originating...
was rerun in 1978 and Match Game
Match Game
Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...
was rerun in syndication in 1985. With the advent of cable channels, rerunning game shows has become more common; for instance, Merv Griffin's Crosswords
Merv Griffin's Crosswords
Merv Griffin's Crosswords is an American game show based on crossword puzzles. The show was created by its namesake, Merv Griffin, who died shortly after beginning production on the series...
, which lasted one season and 225 episodes in syndication, has been continuously rerun from that point onward, either in syndication or on current channel FamilyNet
FamilyNet
FamilyNet is a broadcast television network owned by ComStar Media Fund and based in Atlanta, Georgia. The network was founded in 1979 as the National Christian Network, and took the name FamilyNet in 1988 under the ownership of Jerry Falwell. The channel was acquired by InTouch Ministries in...
. GSN
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
reruns several game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
s that ran less than 100 episodes, including Greed
Greed (game show)
Greed is an American television game show that aired on Fox from November 4, 1999 until July 14, 2000. The game consisted of a team of contestants who answered a series of multiple-choice questions for a potential prize of up to $2 million...
(44 episodes), Double Dare
Double Dare (1976 game show)
Double Dare is an American television game show, produced by Mark Goodson—Bill Todman Productions, that ran from 1976 to 1977 on CBS. Alex Trebek was the host, with Johnny Olson and later Gene Wood announcing...
(65 episodes), Dog Eat Dog
Dog Eat Dog (US game show)
Dog Eat Dog is an American game show, which originally ran from June 17, 2002 to August 26, 2003, it is loosely based on the UK version of the show by the same name...
(26 episodes), and perhaps the most extreme case, Million Dollar Password
Million Dollar Password
Million Dollar Password is an updated version of the game show Password on CBS, which was hosted by Regis Philbin and ran from June 1, 2008 to June 14, 2009. Based upon a format created by Bob Stewart for Goodson-Todman, FremantleMedia produced the program.-Production and broadcast history:Million...
, which ran for only 12 episodes.
Cartoons and children's programming
Rerunning children's programming generally requires far fewer episodes than programming for adults. For daily children's programs currently in production, production is often "front-loaded:" a new series will begin with new episodes five days a week, then cut back to one new episode each week (or less as the series progresses) while reruns air the other four days.For series that are already out of production, most shows air their runs for a short period of time, then are pulled and replaced by another series from the archives. For weekly series, this practice dates to at least the 1960s, when Saturday morning cartoon
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
s would, after the end of their 13-week run, begin rerunning continuously for about a year until being replaced by the next show, either new or archival. After several years, once the previous generation of children outgrew the show, it could be reintroduced for the next younger generation by airing reruns. For shows that are rerun daily, the time span is usually on the order of months; Boomerang
Boomerang (TV channel)
Boomerang is a 24-hour American cable television channel owned by Turner Broadcasting System, a division of Time Warner. Boomerang specializes in reruns of animated programming from Time Warner's extensive archives, including pre-1986 MGM, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
, a channel that specializes in reruns of Saturday morning cartoons, changes its schedule approximately once a month to accommodate the short runs of many of the shows in its extensive library.
Reality television
Most forms of reality shows have found syndication problematic even if they reach the 100 episode milestone. The serialSerial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
episodic nature of the shows, the game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
elements that come with competitive reality programs, and the "event" nature of first-run reality shows to have unique elements to them to appeal to audiences on their first runs on networks, all hamper attempts to give the programs a second life in syndication. For example, previous seasons of The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race
The Amazing Race is a reality television game show in which teams of two people, who have some form of a preexisting personal relationship, race around the world in competition with other teams...
ran nightly on GSN
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
starting in 2005
2005 in television
The year 2005 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2005.For the American TV schedule, see: 2005–06 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-Miniseries:...
, but with the winning team at the end of each season already known and thus the loss of the unexpected drama within each episode, not many viewers were drawn to the second-run episodes; in 2006, GSN bumped the repeats to overnights. MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's The Real World
The Real World
The Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. First broadcast in 1992, the show, which was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family, is the longest-running program in MTV history and one of the...
also failed to generate much audience interest in a three-year syndicated run when offered to local stations, as MTV's tactic of frequent full-season marathons of the show on the network reduced the value of the episodes as more of a filler than a series. However, these marathon events, where networks such as MTV or VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
have shown an entire season of a reality program in a block, have been successful enough for them to become common on the networks: in 2008, both channels have frequently broadcast a season of America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
in this fashion, airing all of the episodes in order in a single day. Reality series that originally aired on a cable channel also have the disadvantage of having been limited to a relatively small niche audience during their original run and not being popular to a wide enough audience to warrant airing it in reruns after its original run ends.
Additionally, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Fear Factor
Fear Factor
Fear Factor is an American stunt/dare reality game show. The original Dutch version was called Now or Neverland. When Endemol USA and NBC adapted it to the American market in 2001, they changed the name to Fear Factor. The show pits contestants against each other in a variety of stunts for a...
(a reality series in which each episode was self-contained) was promoted by that network's syndication division as "repeat-proof" when the show was sold into syndication to local broadcast networks and FX
FX Networks
FX is the name of a number of related pay television channels owned by News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group...
in 2004
2004 in television
The year 2004 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 2004.For the American TV schedule, see: 2004–05 United States network television schedule.-Events:-Debuts:-1940s:...
, with some stations showing the program twice a day. However, after a strong start, and as NBC began to use Fear Factor to plug weaknesses within its schedule, the ratings for the show's repeats fell, and by the beginning of 2006
2006 in television
2006 in television may refer to:*2006 in American television*2006 in Australian television*2006 in British television*2006 in Canadian television*2006 in Japanese television...
, FX had stopped airing Fear Factor (though it began to air in mid-morning again in the fall of 2006), and the show's syndicated run ended quietly in mid-September 2006.
There have been exceptions to this rule, the best-known being the widely syndicated COPS
COPS (TV series)
Cops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
, due to its extremely low cost, high volume of episodes, presence on a broadcast network during its original run, and self-contained documentary format.
A potential solution to this problem is re-version
Re-version
A relatively recent phenomenon in television production, re-versioning is the process of re-releasing an existing production or an entire series, updated in some form, as a "new" show. It is an alternative to a straight rerun of a series...
ing, which takes the original source material and adds original content to create a new product. American Idol Rewind
American Idol Rewind
American Idol Rewind is a syndicated television series that ran from September 30, 2006 to May 15, 2010. The hour-long weekly series was a repurposed edition of the hit reality talent show American Idol, featuring present day interviews with the contestants, semi-finalists and rejected auditioners...
, a re-version of the Fox reality competition American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
, has found success in syndication and cable reruns.