First Run Syndication
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Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official
broadcast network A terrestrial network (or broadcast network in the United States) is a group of radio stations, television stations, or other electronic media outlets, that form an agreement to air, or broadcast, content from a centralized source. For example, ...
to air it on. It is common in the United States where
broadcast programming Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast autom ...
is scheduled by television networks with local independent
affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...
s. Syndication is less widespread in the rest of the world, as most countries have centralized networks or television stations without local affiliates. Shows can be syndicated internationally, although this is less common. Three common types of syndication are: ''first-run'' syndication, which is programming that is broadcast for the first time as a syndicated show and is made specifically for the purpose of selling it into syndication; ''Off-network'' syndication (colloquially called a "
rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word "repe ...
"), which is the licensing of a program whose first airing was on stations inside the
television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...
that produced it, or in some cases a program that was first-run syndicated, to other stations;Campbell, Richard, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos. "Sounds and Images". Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 224–25. and ''public broadcasting'' syndication.


Types


First-run syndication

In first-run syndication, a program is broadcast for the first time as a syndicated show. Often these programs are made specifically to sell directly into syndication and not made for any particular network.


Off-network syndication

In off-network syndication, a program whose first airing was on network television (or, in some cases, first-run syndication) is licensed for local broadcast on individual stations.
Rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word "repe ...
s are usually found on stations affiliated with smaller networks like The CW or MyNetworkTV, especially since these networks broadcast one less hour of prime time network programming than the Big Four television networks and far less network-provided
daytime television Daytime is a block of television programming taking place during the late-morning and afternoon on weekdays. Daytime programming is typically scheduled to air between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., following the early morning ...
(none at all for these networks). A show usually enters off-network syndication when it has built up about four seasons' worth or between 80 and
100 episodes In the U.S. television industry, 100 episodes is the traditional threshold for a television series to enter syndicated reruns. One hundred episodes are advantageous for stripped syndication because it allows for 20 weeks of weekday reruns (dep ...
, though for some genres the number could be as low as 65. Successful shows in syndication can cover production costs and make a profit, even if the first run of the show was not profitable.


Public broadcasting syndication

This type of syndication has arisen in the U.S. as a parallel service to member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
) and the handful of independent
public broadcasting Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...
stations. This form of syndication more closely resembles the news agency model, where nominally competing networks share resources and rebroadcast each other's programs. For example, National Public Radio (
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
) stations commonly air the
Public Radio Exchange The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) is a non-profit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization is the largest on-demand catalogue of public radio programs available for broadcast and internet ...
's ''
This American Life ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...
'', which may contain stories produced by NPR journalists.


Process

When syndicating a show, the
production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...
, or a distribution company called a syndicator, attempts to license the show to one station in each
media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...
or area, or to a commonly owned station group, within the country and internationally. If successful, this can be lucrative, but the syndicator may only be able to license the show in a small percentage of the markets. Syndication differs from licensing the show to a television network. Once a network picks up a show, it is usually guaranteed to run on most or all the network's affiliates on the same day of the week and at the same time (in a given time zone, in countries where this is a concern). Some production companies create their shows and license them to networks at a loss, at least at first, hoping that the series will succeed and that eventual off-network syndication will turn a profit for the show. A syndicated program is licensed to stations for "cash" (the stations purchase the rights to
local insertion In broadcasting, local insertion (known in the United Kingdom as an opt-out) is the act or capability of a broadcast television station, radio station or cable system to insert or replace part of a network feed with content unique to the local s ...
some or all of the advertisements at their level); given to stations for access to airtime (wherein the syndicators get the advertising revenue); or the combination of both. The trade of program for airtime is called "
barter In trade, barter (derived from ''bareter'') is a system of exchange (economics), exchange in which participants in a financial transaction, transaction directly exchange good (economics), goods or service (economics), services for other goods ...
." In the United States (as a result of continued relaxation of station ownership regulations since the 1970s), syndicated programs are usually licensed to stations on a group level, with multiple stations owned and/or operated by the same broadcasting group carrying the program in different markets (except in areas where another station holds the market rights to the program) – making it increasingly more efficient for syndicators to gain widespread national clearances for their programs. Many syndicated programs are traditionally sold first to one of seven "key" station groups (
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
,
ABC Owned Television Stations ABC Owned Television Stations is a sub-division of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company that oversees the owned-and-operated stations of the American Broadcastin ...
,
NBC Owned Television Stations NBC Owned Television Stations (formerly NBC Local Media and NBC Television Stations Division (TVSD)) is the division of NBCUniversal Media Group#NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, NBCUniversal Owned TV Stations (NBCUniversal), a subsidiary o ...
,
CBS Television Stations CBS News and Stations is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of United States, American television stations along with CBS News. , the division owns 28 stations: 15 are the core stati ...
,
Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (stylized as FOX TV STATIONS; also known as FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees ...
,
Telemundo Station Group Telemundo Station Group is the division of NBCUniversal Owned TV Stations (NBCUniversal), a subsidiary of Comcast that oversees their Telemundo owned-and-operated television stations and the TeleXitos network. The NBC owned-and-operated station ...
, and Televisa Univision), allowing their programs to gain clearances in the largest U.S. TV markets (such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, where all six aforementioned groups each own stations), before striking deals with other major and smaller station owners. Shows airing in first-run syndication that are carried primarily by an
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
of a network may sometimes be incorrectly referenced as a network program, especially if said network's syndication wing distributes the program, regardless to its distribution to stations of varying network affiliations and despite the fact it is not part of an individual network's base schedule. Since the early 2000s, some programs being proposed for national distribution in first-run syndication have been test marketed on a selected number of or all stations owned by certain major station group, allowing the distributor to determine whether a national roll-out is feasible based on the ratings accrued in the selected markets where the program is being aired. While market penetration can vary widely and revenues can be unreliable, the producers often enjoy more content freedom in the absence of network's
standards and practices In the United States, Standards and Practices (also referred to as Broadcast Standards and Practices or BS&P for short) is the name traditionally given to the department at a television network which is responsible for the moral, ethical, and le ...
departments; frequently, some innovative ideas are explored by first-run syndicated programming which the networks are leery of giving airtime to. Meanwhile, top-rated syndicated shows in the United States usually have a domestic market reach as high as 98%. Very often, series that are aired in syndication have reduced running times. For example, a standard American sitcom runs 22 minutes, but in syndication it may be reduced to 20 minutes to make room for more commercials. Syndication can take the form of either weekly or daily syndication. Game shows, some "tabloid" and entertainment news shows, and talk shows are broadcast daily on weekdays, while most other first-run syndicated shows are broadcast on a weekly basis and are usually aired on weekends only. Big discussion occurred in the 1990s and 2000s about whether previously aired episodes of a show could become syndicated while new episodes of it continued to air on its original network. There had been much opposition to this idea and it was generally viewed to lead to the death of the show. However, licensing a program for syndication actually resulted in the increased popularity for shows that remained in production. A prime example is ''
Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, launching the ''Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire ...
''.


First-run syndication in the U.S.

As with radio in the U.S., television networks, particularly in their early years, did not offer a full day's worth of programming for their affiliates, even in the evening or "prime time" hours. In the early days of television, this was less of an issue, as there were in most markets fewer TV stations than there were networks (at the time four), which meant that the stations that did exist affiliated with multiple networks and, when not airing network or local programs, typically
sign-on and sign-off A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...
. The loosening of licensing restrictions, and the subsequent passage of the
All-Channel Receiver Act The All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962 (ACRA) (), commonly known as the All-Channels Act, was passed by the United States Congress in 1961, to allow the Federal Communications Commission to require that all television set manufacturers must incl ...
, meant that by the early 1960s, the situation had reversed. There were now more stations than the networks—now down to three in number after the failure of the
DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...
—could serve. Some stations were not affiliated with any network, operating as independent stations. Both groups sought to supplement their locally produced programming with content that could be flexibly scheduled. The development of
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...
and, much later, enhanced
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
down link access furthered these options. While most past first-run syndicated shows were shown only in syndication, some canceled network shows continued to be produced for first-run syndication or were revived for syndication several years after their original cancellation. Until about 1980, most syndicated series were distributed to stations either on 16mm film prints (off-network reruns, feature films, and cartoons) or
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...
(topical series such as the talk shows of
Mike Douglas Michael Delaney Dowd Jr. (August 11, 1920Cook County Birth Certificates, file number 6053268, borAugust 11, 1920/ref>Social Security Death Index, Michael D. Dowd Jr., Birth: 11 Aug 1920, death: 11 Aug 2006 residing in North Palm Beach, FL, acce ...
and
Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, G ...
, and variety and quiz shows). Ziv Television Programs, after establishing itself as a major radio syndicator, was the first major first-run television syndicator, creating several long-lived series in the 1950s and selling them directly to regional sponsors, who in turn sold the shows to local stations. Ziv's first major TV hit was ''
The Cisco Kid The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in ''Everybody's Maga ...
''. Ziv had the foresight to film ''The Cisco Kid'' in color, even though color TV was still in its infancy and most stations did not yet support the technology. Among the most widely seen Ziv offerings were ''
Sea Hunt ''Sea Hunt'' is an American action adventure television series that aired in syndication from 1958 to 1961 and was popular for decades afterwards. The series originally aired for four seasons, with 155 episodes produced. It stars Lloyd Bridges ...
'', '' I Led Three Lives'', ''
Highway Patrol A highway patrol is a police unit, detail, or law enforcement agency created primarily for the purpose of overseeing and enforcing traffic safety compliance on roads and highways within a jurisdiction. They are also referred to in many countri ...
'' and '' Ripcord''. Some first-run syndicated series were picked up by networks in the 1950s and early 1960s, such as the '' Adventures of Superman'' and ''
Mr. Ed ''Mister Ed'' is an American television sitcom produced by Filmways that aired in Broadcast syndication, syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966. The show's title character is a tal ...
''. The networks began syndicating their reruns in the late 1950s, and first-run syndication shrank sharply for a decade. Some stalwart series continued, including ''
Death Valley Days ''Death Valley Days'' is an American Western (genre), Western anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was ...
''; other ambitious projects were also to flourish, however briefly, such as ''The Play of the Week'' (1959–1961), produced by
David Susskind David Howard Susskind (December 19, 1920 – February 22, 1987) was an American producer of TV, movies, and stage plays and also a TV talk show host. His talk shows were innovative in the genre and addressed timely, controversial topics beyond th ...
(of the syndicated talk show ''Open End'' and also producer of such network fare as ''NYPD''). Among other syndicated series of the 1950s were MCA's ''
The Abbott and Costello Show ''The Abbott and Costello Show'' is an American television sitcom starring the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. The program premiered in syndication in the fall of 1952 and ran two seasons to the spring of 1954. Each season ran 26 e ...
'' (vaudeville-style comedy) and Guild Films' ''
Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer and actor. He was born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish Americans, Polish origin and enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, ...
'' (musical variety) and '' Life With Elizabeth'', a domestic situation comedy that introduced
Betty White Betty Marion Ludden ( White; January 17, 1922December 31, 2021), known professionally as Betty White, was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television with a career spanning almost seven decades, she was noted for her vas ...
to a national audience. In addition to the ''Adventures of Superman'', many other series were based on comic strips and aimed at the juvenile audience, including ''
Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...
'', ''
Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the '' Detroit Mirror'', and was distributed by the Chicago T ...
'', ''
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, is a fictional American comic book jungle girl heroine during the Golden Age of Comic Books. She originally debuted in the British magazine ''Wags'' #46 (January 1938). and later made her first American appearance i ...
'', and ''
Joe Palooka ''Joe Palooka'' is an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. The strip debuted on April 19, 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers. It was cancelled in 1984. The strip was adapt ...
''. Original juvenile adventure series included '' Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion'', '' Cowboy G-Men'', and '' Ramar of the Jungle''. Series based on literary properties included ''
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...
'', ''
Long John Silver Long John Silver is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1883 novel '' Treasure Island'' by Robert Louis Stevenson. The most colourful and complex character in the book, he continues to appear in popular culture. His missing leg ...
'' (based on ''
Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...
''), and ''
The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' () is a French historical adventure novel written and published in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is the first of the author's three d'Artagnan Romances. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in col ...
''. Several of these were co-productions between American and European (usually British) companies. ''
Crusader Rabbit ''Crusader Rabbit'' is an American animated cartoon series created by Alexander Anderson and Jay Ward, and the first of its kind to be produced specifically for television. Its main characters were Crusader Rabbit and his sidekick Ragland T. T ...
'' pioneered in the area of first-run animated series; followed by ''
Bucky and Pepito ''Bucky and Pepito'' is a 1959 Western-themed animated television series produced by Sam Singer.''Bucky and Pepi ...
'', ''
Colonel Bleep ''Colonel Bleep'' is a 1957 American science fiction animated TV series which was the first color cartoon series made for television. It was created and written by Robert D. Buchanan and Jack Schleh on June 8, 1956, and was animated by Soundac, ...
'', '' Spunky and Tadpole'', '' Q. T. Hush'', and others. (All of these were five-minute shorts designed to be placed within locally hosted kiddie shows.) Syndicated sports programming included ''Championship Bowling'' and ''All-Star Golf'', both produced by Chicago-based Walter Schwimmer Inc. In addition to regular series, syndicators also offered packages of feature films, cartoons, and short subjects originally made for movie theaters. Until late in the 1950s, however, much of the theatrical product available consisted of low-budget secondary features (mainly Westerns) with relatively few notable stars. One syndication company,
National Telefilm Associates National Telefilm Associates (NTA) was a distribution company primarily concerned with the syndication of American film libraries to television, including the Republic Pictures film library. It was successful enough on cable television between 19 ...
, attempted to create a "
NTA Film Network The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956 that operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios. Despite attracting more ...
" of stations showing its lineup of first-run series, which included syndicated programs such as '' Police Call'' (1955), ''
How to Marry a Millionaire ''How to Marry a Millionaire'' is a 1953 American romantic comedy film directed by Jean Negulesco and written and produced by Nunnally Johnson. The screenplay was based on the plays ''The Greeks Had a Word for It'' (1930) by Zoe Akins and '' ...
'' (1957–1959), '' The Passerby'', '' Man Without a Gun'' (1957–1959), and '' This Is Alice'' (1958). The venture lasted five years and closed down in 1961. By the late 1960s, a ''de facto'' two-tiered system had developed in the United States, with the major network affiliates (usually on longer-range VHF stations) consistently drawing more viewers than their UHF, independent counterparts; syndicators thus hoped to get their programs onto the major network stations, where spots in the lineup were far more scarce.
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) rulings in 1971 curtailed the American networks' ability to schedule programming in what has become known as the " fringe time", notably the 7–8 p.m. ( Eastern and
Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...
) hour of "prime time", with the stated hope that this might encourage more local programming of social and cultural relevance to communities (off-network syndicated repeats were also banned); some projects of this sort came to fruition, though these were usually relatively commercial and slick efforts such as Group W's '' Evening/PM Magazine'' franchise, and such pre-existing national projects as the brief commercial-television run of
William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American conservative writer, public intellectual, political commentator and novelist. Born in New York City, Buckley spoke Spanish as his ...
's interview/debate series '' Firing Line''. The more obvious result was an increase in Canadian-produced syndicated dramatic series, such as ''
Dusty's Trail ''Dusty's Trail'' is an American Western/ comedy series starring Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker that aired in syndication from September 1973 to March 1974. The series is a western-themed reworking of Denver's previous series '' Gilligan's Isl ...
'' and the Colgate-sponsored '' Dr. Simon Locke''. Game shows, often evening editions of network afternoon series, flourished, and a few odd items such as '' Wild Kingdom'', canceled by
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
in 1971, had a continuing life as syndicated programming tailor-made for the early fringe.


1970s and 1980s

In 1971, the U.S. FCC passed the
Prime Time Access Rule The Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) was an American television broadcasting regulation enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from September 13, 1971, to August 30, 1996. It was instituted under concerns that television networks c ...
and
Financial Interest and Syndication Rules The Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, widely known as the fin-syn rules, were a set of United States rules imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1970 on the television industry. The FCC sought to prevent the Big Three ...
, which prevented networks from programming one particular hour of prime time programming on its television stations each night and required the networks to spin off their syndication arms as independent companies. Although the intent of the rule was to encourage local stations to produce their own programs for this time slot, budgetary limits instead prompted stations to buy syndicated programs to fill the slot. This, coupled with an increase in UHF independent stations, caused a boom in the syndication market. In the 1970s, first-run syndication continued to be an odd mix: cheaply produced, but not always poor quality, "filler" programming. These included the dance-music show ''
Soul Train ''Soul Train'' is an American musical variety television show. After airing locally on WCIU-TV in Chicago, Illinois, for a year, it aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featu ...
'', and
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...
's ''That's Hollywood'', a television variation on the popular ''
That's Entertainment! ''That's Entertainment!'' is a 1974 American compilation film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 50th anniversary. The success of the retrospective prompted a 1976 sequel, the related 1985 film ''That's Dancing!'', and ...
'' theatrically released collections of film clips from the
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
library. There were also many imported programs distributed this way. These include the documentary series ''Wild, Wild World of Animals'' (repackaged by
Time Life Time Life, Inc. (also habitually represented with a hyphen as Time-Life, Inc., even by the company itself) was an American multi-media conglomerate company formerly known as a prolific production/publishing company and direct marketeer seller ...
with narration by
William Conrad William Conrad (born John William Cann Jr., September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television, peaking in popularity when he s ...
) and
Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...
's sober and necessarily grim ''
The World at War ''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. Produced in 1973 at a cost of around £880,000 (), it was the most expensive factual series ever made at the time. ...
''. ''
The Starlost ''The Starlost'' is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series created by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a huge generational ...
'' (1973) was a Canadian series, apparently modified from the vision of science fiction writers
Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave science fiction, New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published wo ...
and
Ben Bova Benjamin William Bova (November 8, 1932November 29, 2020) was an American writer and editor. During a writing career of 60 years, he was the author of more than 120 works of science fact and fiction, an editor of ''Analog Science Fiction and Fac ...
. Britain's
ITC Entertainment The Incorporated Television Company (ITC), or ITC Entertainment as it was referred to in the United States, was a British company involved in the production and distribution of television programmes. History Incorporated Television Programme C ...
, headed by
Lew Grade Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a Ukrainian-born British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production ...
, made '' UFO'' (1970) and '' Space: 1999'' (1975). These two series were created by
Gerry Anderson Gerald Alexander Anderson (; 14 April 1929 – 26 December 2012) was an English television and film producer, director, writer and occasional voice artist, who is known for his futuristic television programmes, especially his 1960s production ...
(and his associates), previously best known for
Supermarionation Supermarionation (a portmanteau of the words "super", " marionette" and "animation")La Rivière 2009, p. 67. is a style of television and film production employed by British company AP Films (later Century 21 Productions) in its puppet T ...
(a combination of puppetry and animation) series such as '' Thunderbirds''. The most successful syndicated show in the United States in the 1970s was probably ''
The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a variety sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. It is presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers interspersed with ongoing plot-lines with ru ...
'', also from Lew Grade's company. Animated series from the 1980s ''
Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds ''Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds'' is a children's animated television series that adapts the classic 1844 Alexandre Dumas story of d'Artagnan and ''The Three Musketeers'', produced by Spanish studio BRB Internacional with animation by Ja ...
'' and '' Around the World with Willy Fog'' came from Spanish animation production company
BRB Internacional BRB Internacional S.A.U was a Spanish licensing and production company of animated television series such as '' Around the World with Willy Fog'', ''Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds'' and '' The World of David the Gnome''. At the end of January ...
and their Japanese co-producers
Nippon Animation is a Japanese animation studio. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with its headquarters in their Tama, Tokyo, Tama City studio and an administrative office in the Ginza district of Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō. Nippon Animation is known for prod ...
. Game shows thrived in syndication during the decade. Nightly versions of ''
What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a Panel show, panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent American revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists ...
'', ''
Truth or Consequences ''Truth or Consequences'' is an American game show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards (1940–57) and later on television by Edwards (1950–54), Jack Bailey (1954–56), Bob Barker (1956–75), Steve Dunne (1957–58), Bob Hi ...
'', ''
Beat the Clock ''Beat the Clock'' is an American television game show. Contestants attempted to complete challenges such as physical stunts within a time limit in order to win prizes. The show was a creation of Mark Goodson- Bill Todman Productions. The sho ...
'' and ''
To Tell the Truth ''To Tell the Truth'' is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual ...
'' premiered in the late 1960s and found loyal audiences for many years. Several daytime network games began producing once-a-week nighttime versions for broadcast in the early evening hours, usually with bigger prizes and often featuring different hosts (emcees were limited to appearing on one network and one syndicated game simultaneously) and modified titles (''
Match Game ''Match Game'' is an American television panel game show that premiered on NBC in 1962 and has been revived several times over the course of the last six decades. The game features contestants trying to match answers given by celebrity paneli ...
PM'', ''The $100,000 Name That Tune'' or ''The $25,000
Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
'', for example). A few independent game shows, such as '' Sports Challenge'' and '' Celebrity Bowling'', also entered the syndication market around this time. Of these shows, ''
Let's Make a Deal ''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is a television game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created and produced by Stefan Hatos and Mo ...
'' and ''
Hollywood Squares ''Hollywood Squares'' (originally ''The Hollywood Squares'', later stylized as ''H2: Hollywood Squares'') is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show originally aired as a ...
'' were the first to jump to twice-a-week syndicated versions, in about 1973. Another popular daytime show to have a weekly syndicated version was ''
The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is an American television game show where contestants compete by guessing the prices of merchandise to win cash and prizes. A 1972 revival by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman of their The Price Is Right (1956 American game ...
'', which began concurrently in weekly syndication and on
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
; the syndicated "nighttime" version was hosted by
Dennis James Dennis James (born Demie James Sposa, August 24, 1917 – June 3, 1997) was an American television personality, philanthropist, and commercial spokesman. Until 1976, he had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other televi ...
for its first five years, after which daytime host
Bob Barker Robert William Barker (December 12, 1923 – August 26, 2023) was an American media personality, game show host, and animal rights advocate. He hosted CBS's '' The Price Is Right'', the longest-running game show in North American television ...
took over for another three years of weekly episodes (even though, by this point, the daytime and nighttime shows had diverged noticeably). The nighttime version of ''
Family Feud ''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. Two families compete on each episode to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes. The show has had three separate runs, the ...
'' (1977) quickly jumped from once-weekly to twice, and finally to five-day-a-week airings, and its massive popularity, along with that of new five-day-a-week entries like Jack Barry's '' The Joker's Wild'' (1977) and '' Tic-Tac-Dough'' (1978), the move of ''Match Game''s daily run from CBS to syndication (1979), and
Chuck Barris Charles Hirsch Barris (June 3, 1929 – March 21, 2017) was an American game show creator, producer, and host, author, and songwriter. A key crew member of several hugely successful game shows, he was the creator of ''The Dating Game'' (1965– ...
's increasingly raunchy remakes of his 1960s hits ''
The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show. Newly married couples compete against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally created ...
'' and ''
The Dating Game ''The Dating Game'' is an American television game show that first aired on December 20, 1965, and was the first of many shows created and packaged by Chuck Barris from the 1960s through the 1980s. ABC dropped the show on July 6, 1973, but it ...
'', brought an end (with rare exceptions) to the era of once-a-week games. Also popular in first-run syndication and daytime was ''
The Gong Show ''The Gong Show'' is an American amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976, through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976 to ...
'', hosted by Barris throughout most of its run (
Gary Owens Gary Owens (born Gary Bernard Altman; May 10, 1934 – February 12, 2015) was an American disc jockey, voice actor, announcer and radio personality. His polished baritone speaking voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, wh ...
hosted the first syndicated season). A number of half-hour musical-variety shows were also offered in the early 1970s, generally built around personable middle-of-the-road singers like
Bobby Vinton Stanley Robert Vinton (born April 16, 1935) is an American singer and actor, who hosted his own self-titled TV show in the late 1970s. As a teen idol, he became known as "The Polish Prince", as his music paid tribute to his Polish heritage. One ...
, Bobby Goldsboro,
Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...
, and
Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...
, or groups like
Sha Na Na Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll and doo-wop revival group formed in 1969. The group performed a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs that both revived and parodied the music and the New York City street culture of the 1 ...
, The Johnny Mann Singers, and The Golddiggers. '' Wait Till Your Father Gets Home'' (1972) was a
Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...
cartoon series attempting to ape the ''
All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American sitcoms in the United States, sitcom television series that aired on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes. It was later produced as ''Archie Bunker's Pla ...
''-style sitcoms; ''
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo ''Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'' (known commonly as ''Skippy'') is an Australian television series created by Australian actor John McCallum, Lionel (Bob) Austin, and Lee Robinson, produced from 1967 to 1969 (airing from 5 February 1968 to 4 May 1 ...
'' (1969), an Australian children's series, or ''
Gentle Ben Gentle Ben is a bear character created by author Walt Morey and first introduced in a 1965 children's novel, ''Gentle Ben''. The original novel told the story of the friendship between a large male bear named Ben and a boy named Mark. The story ...
'' (a decade later, the decidedly not-for-children Australian '' Prisoner: Cell Block H'' would have a brief American syndicated run); and a Canadian sketch-comedy series began appearing on U.S. television stations in 1977—''
Second City Television ''Second City Television'', commonly shortened to ''SCTV'' and later known as ''SCTV Network'' and ''SCTV Channel'', is a Canadian television sketch comedy show about a fictional television station that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984 ...
'', which would eventually find a home, for two seasons, on NBC, as ''SCTV Network 90'' (and on premium cable channel
Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television network owned by Home Box Office, Inc., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched on August 1, 1980, as a "maxi-pay" service to complement the offerings of its sister premium network, HBO (Home Box ...
by 1983). The Universal/
Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...
-produced package of original programming, ''
Operation Prime Time Operation Prime Time (OPT) was a consortium of American independent television stations to develop prime time programming for independent stations. OPT and its spin-off syndication company, Television Program Enterprises (TPE), were formed by ...
'', began appearing on ''ad hoc'' quasi-networks of (almost by necessity) non-network stations in the U.S. in 1978, with a mini-series adaptation of
John Jakes John William Jakes (March 31, 1932 – March 11, 2023) was an American writer, best known for historical and speculative fiction. His American Civil War trilogy, '' North and South'', has sold millions of copies worldwide. He was also the author ...
' ''The Bastard''. From the later 1960s into the late 1970s, Westinghouse also found considerable success with ''
The Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' is an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland in 1961 before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went i ...
'', a variety/talk show hosted by a singer with an easygoing interview style, which aired in the afternoons in most markets; similar programs soon followed featuring
Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, G ...
, who had been the host of
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
' most sustained late-night answer to ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of ''The Tonight Show''. Hosted by Johnny Carson, it aired from October 1, 1962 to May 22, 1992, replacing ''T ...
'' previously, and another network veteran,
Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, television personality, and the chart-topping female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during the ...
. Also notable was the growing success of audience-participation talk shows, particularly that of the innovator of the format,
Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (December 21, 1935 – August 18, 2024) was an American media personality, writer, film producer, and the creator and host of '' The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the fir ...
. First-run syndication in the 1970s also made it possible for some shows that were no longer wanted by television networks to remain on the air. In 1971, ABC canceled ''
The Lawrence Welk Show ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 16 years on ABC from 1955 t ...
'', which went on to produce new episodes in syndication for another 11 years, and currently continues to much success in weekend reruns (with new segments featuring Welk cast members inserted within the episodes) distributed to
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
stations by the
Oklahoma Educational Television Authority The Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) is a network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The authority operates as a statutory corporation that holds the broadcast license, licenses for all of ...
. Also in 1971, CBS dropped ''
Lassie Lassie is a fictional female Rough Collie dog and is featured in a 1938 short story by Eric Knight that was later expanded to a 1940 full-length novel, '' Lassie Come-Home''. Knight's portrayal of Lassie bears some features in common with anot ...
'' and ''
Hee Haw ''Hee Haw'' is an American television variety show featuring country music and humor with the fictional rural "Kornfield Kounty" as the backdrop. It aired from 1969 to 1993, and on TNN from 1996 to 1997. Reruns of the series were broadcast on ...
'', the latter show's run ending as part of the network's cancellation of all of its rural-oriented shows (known then as " rural purge", which also resulted in the cancellations of ''
The Beverly Hillbillies ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor backwoods family ...
'' and ''
Green Acres ''Green Acres'' is an American television absurdist sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to ''Petticoat Junction'', the series was first br ...
''). ''Lassie'' entered first-run syndication for two years, while ''Hee Haw'' continued to produce new episodes until 1992. The 1980s are also notable for the
court show A court show (also known as a judge show, legal/courtroom program, courtroom series, or judicial show) is a broadcast programming genre comprising legal dramas and reality legal programming. Court shows present content mainly in the form of legal ...
genre being introduced into syndication. It began with ''
The People's Court ''The People's Court'' is an American Court show#Arbitration-based reality court show, arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims court, small claims disputes in a simulation, simulated courtroom set. W ...
'', an American program featuring an arbitrator handling
small claims Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and go by different names in different jurisdictions. For example, it ma ...
disputes in a
simulated A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...
courtroom A courtroom is the enclosed space in which courts of law are held in front of a judge. A number of courtrooms, which may also be known as "courts", may be housed in a courthouse. In recent years, courtrooms have been equipped with audiovisual ...
set. The People's Court was the first of all arbitration-base reality programs, which later exploded in popularity beginning in the late 1990s. The original series ran from 1981 to 1993, with the revival airing from 1997 to 2023. Both versions ran in
first-run syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...
.


First-run syndicated comedy

Throughout the mid-to-late 1980s into the early 1990s, sitcoms continued to enter first-run syndication after being canceled by the networks, the most successful of which were ''
Mama's Family ''Mama's Family'' is an American sitcom television series starring Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper, Mama (Thelma Harper). The series is a spin-off of a recurring series of comedy sketches called "The Family (sketch), The Family" featured on ''T ...
'' and ''
Charles in Charge ''Charles in Charge'' is an American sitcom television series that premiered on October 3, 1984, on CBS. The series was a production of Al Burton Productions and Scholastic Productions in association with Universal Television and starred Sco ...
''. Other sitcoms during this time to enter first-run syndication after network cancellation included ''
Silver Spoons ''Silver Spoons'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC from September 25, 1982, to May 11, 1986, and in first-run syndication from September 27, 1986, to May 30, 1987. The series was produced by Embassy Television for th ...
'', ''
Punky Brewster ''Punky Brewster'' is an American Situation comedy, sitcom television series about a young girl (Soleil Moon Frye) being raised by a foster parent (George Gaynes) in Chicago. The show ran on NBC from September 16, 1984, to March 9, 1986, and ag ...
'', '' Webster'', ''
It's a Living ''It's a Living'' (renamed ''Making a Living'' for Season 2) is an American Ensemble cast, ensemble sitcom television series set in a restaurant at the top of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The show aired on Ame ...
'', ''
Too Close for Comfort ''Too Close for Comfort'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from November 11, 1980, to May 5, 1983, and in first-run syndication from April 7, 1984, to February 7, 1987. Its name was changed to ''The Ted Knight Show'' ...
'', ''
9 to 5 Working time or laboring time is the period of time that a person spends at paid Wage labour, labor. Unpaid work, Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Many countri ...
'', ''
What's Happening!! ''What's Happening!!'' is an American sitcom television series that first aired on ABC from August 5, 1976, premiering as a summer series. It also returned as a weekly series, that later aired for the rest of the three seasons, from November 1 ...
'', and ''
WKRP in Cincinnati ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' is an American sitcom television series about the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional AM radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson. It was based upon his experiences obs ...
''. Many of these sitcoms produced new shows in syndication mainly to have enough episodes for a profitable run in reruns. Other sitcoms, such as '' Small Wonder'', '' Out of This World'', '' The Munsters Today'', and ''
Harry and the Hendersons ''Harry and the Hendersons'' is a 1987 American fantasy comedy film directed and produced by William Dear and starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Don Ameche, David Suchet, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, Lainie Kazan, and Kevin Peter Hal ...
'' (as well as more
action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...
oriented series like ''
Superboy Superboy is an identity used by several fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. These characters have been featured in several eponymous comic series, in addition to ''Adventure Comics'' and other series ...
'' and '' My Secret Identity'') enjoyed success in syndication throughout their entire run.


Dramatic first-run syndicated programs

The broadcast networks aired many
action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...
programs from the 1950s to the 1980s. By the late 1980s, however, increasing production costs made them less attractive to the networks. Studios found that reruns of one-hour dramas did not sell as well as sitcoms, so they were unable to fully recoup the shows' costs using the traditional deficit financing model. When NBC canceled the television series adaptation of '' Fame'' after only two seasons, the producers made special arrangements with LBS Communications, which resulted in MGM reviving the series for first-run syndication in the fall of 1983, where it continued for four more seasons, with the last first-run episode airing in the U.S. on May 18, 1987. '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' debuted in 1987, and became the most-watched syndicated show throughout its seven-year run. Its great success caused many others to debut. '' Friday the 13th: The Series'' (a horror series which shared its title with the successful
movie A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
franchise) also debuted in 1987. The next syndicated shows that debuted in 1988 were '' War of the Worlds'' and ''
Freddy's Nightmares ''Freddy's Nightmares'' (also known as ''A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Series'') is an American horror anthology television series that aired in syndication from October 8, 1988 until March 12, 1990. A spin-off from the ''A Nightmare on Elm ...
''. ''
Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American Drama (film and television), drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz ...
'', which debuted in 1989 on
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
and was canceled after one season also became one of the most watched syndicated shows throughout its ten-year-run, garnering a worldwide audience. By 1994, there were more than 20 one-hour syndicated shows. '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' and '' Renegade'' were also syndicated. '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and its
spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...
series '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' were also popular, often tying Deep Space Nine at 5% to 6% of the Nielsen-monitored audience. ''
Forever Knight ''Forever Knight'' is a Canadian television series about Nick Knight (Forever Knight), Nick Knight, an 800-year-old vampire working as a police detective in modern-day Toronto, Ontario. Wracked with guilt for centuries of killing others, he seeks ...
'' drew devoted "cult" audiences (3% rating). '' Psi Factor'' and '' Poltergeist: The Legacy'' attempted to draw on the audience for the
Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
series ''
The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...
'' (as did the short-lived spinoff ''
Baywatch Nights ''Baywatch Nights'' is an American science-fiction mystery drama television series that aired in syndication from 1995 to 1997. Created by Douglas Schwartz, David Hasselhoff, and Gregory J. Bonann, the series is a spin-off from the telev ...
''). Among the other series were ''
Relic Hunter ''Relic Hunter'' is a Canadian adventure television series, starring Tia Carrere and Christien Anholt. It centres on Sydney Fox, a professor who is also a globe-trotting "relic hunter" who looks for ancient artifacts to return to museums and ...
'', '' V.I.P.'', ''
High Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...
'', '' She Spies'', and '' Once a Thief''. ''
Babylon 5 ''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Tel ...
'' began life in 1993 on the
Prime Time Entertainment Network The Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN) was an American television network that was operated by the Prime Time Consortium, a joint venture between the Warner Bros. Television Studios#Warner Bros. Domestic Television_Distribution, Warner Bros. ...
(PTEN), moved into syndicated distribution when its network was displaced by WB/UPN-affiliated stations, and eventually ended its final season on TNT (1998). In 1997 '' Earth: Final Conflict'', based on ideas from
Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter and producer who created the science fiction series and fictional universe ''Star Trek.'' Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up ...
, premiered in syndication. Three years later, a second Gene Roddenberry series, '' Andromeda'' also premiered in syndication. As emerging networks WB and UPN signed contracts with formerly-independent stations, and the syndication market shrunk, Andromeda season 5 moved to the Syfy Channel (2004). There was not another first-run syndicated drama (or a first-run scripted series in syndication) until 2008, when
Disney-ABC Domestic Television Disney General Entertainment Content (DGEC), formerly ABC Group, Disney–ABC Television Group and the second incarnation of Walt Disney Television, is a division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company that ove ...
and
ABC Studios ABC Signature was a production arm of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a sub-division of the Disney Entertainment business segment and division of The Walt Disney Company. The studio's ...
teamed up with
Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the first three films in the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present) and the ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007). He also directed the super ...
to launch a new first-run syndicated series, '' Legend of the Seeker'', based on
Terry Goodkind Terry Lee Goodkind (January 11, 1948September 17, 2020) was an American writer. He was known for the epic fantasy series ''The Sword of Truth'' as well as the contemporary suspense novel ''The Law of Nines'' (2009), which has ties to his fantasy ...
's '' Sword of Truth'' novel series. Another gap in first-run scripted series in syndication followed for four years after ''Legend of the Seeker'' was canceled in 2009, until Trifecta Entertainment & Media (a company that mainly distributes programs for off-network syndication) began producing '' SAF3'' (pronounced "safe") in 2013.


Animated series

During the late 1970s and 1980s, independent stations signed on in mid-sized and many small markets. The market for made-for-television cartoons grew as a result to include a branch for such stations. It usually had a greater artistic freedom, and looser standards (not mandated by a network). The older
Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is a cartoon character created in the late 1930s at Warner Bros. Cartoons (originally Leon Schlesinger, Leon Schlesinger Productions) and Voice acting, voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his featured roles in the ' ...
and
Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' (often referred to simply as ''He-Man'') is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel's toy line ''Masters of the Universe''. The show was one of the most popular an ...
'', ''
Inspector Gadget ''Inspector Gadget'' is a media franchise that began in 1983 with the DIC Entertainment animated television series '' Inspector Gadget''. Since the original series, there have been many spin-offs based on the show, including additional animated ...
'', '' Heathcliff'', ''
ThunderCats ''ThunderCats'' is a media franchise, featuring a fictional group of cat-like humanoid aliens. The characters were created by Tobin Wolf and featured in an animated television series named ''ThunderCats'', running from 1985 to 1989, whic ...
'', ''
My Little Pony ''My Little Pony'' (''MLP'') is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature ...
'', '' The Transformers'', ''
G.I. Joe ''G.I. Joe'' is an American media franchise and a line of action figures owned and produced by the toy company Hasbro. The initial product offering represented four of the branches of the U.S. armed forces with the Action Soldier ( U.S. Army), A ...
'', '' Voltron'', ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') is an American media franchise created by comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), D ...
'', and reruns of ''
Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...
'', '' Garfield and Friends'', and ''
The Pink Panther ''The Pink Panther'' is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Clouseau, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The franchise began with the release of the fil ...
'', among many others. Syndication was also important for the nascent
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
community in the United States, with imports like ''
Speed Racer ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuo Yoshida. It was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in form by Sun Wide Comics and later re-re ...
'' and ''
Star Blazers ''Star Blazers'' is an American adaptation of the Japanese anime television series . ''Star Blazers'' was first broadcast in the United States in 1979. It was the first popular English-translated anime that had an overarching plot and storylin ...
'' (a localized edit of ''
Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series written by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, directed by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and produced by Academy Productions. The series aired in Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974 to March 30, 1975, totaling u ...
'') helping to grow interest in Japanese animation. This led to the establishment of companies dedicated to importing and translating anime such as
Streamline Pictures Streamline Pictures was an American media company. Founded by screenwriter Carl Macek and animation historian Jerry Beck, it was one of the earliest distributors of English-dubbed Japanese animation. History Founding Founded in Los Angeles, ...
and
Viz Media Viz Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California, focused on publishing manga, and distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, ...
towards the end of the 1980s. In 1987,
The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...
tried its luck at syndication; ''
DuckTales DuckTales refers to: Film and television * ''DuckTales'' (1987 TV series), original TV series ** '' DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp'' * ''DuckTales'' (2017 TV series), reboot TV series Video games * ''DuckTales'' (video game) ...
'' premiered that September and would eventually last for 100 episodes. The success of ''DuckTales'' paved the way for a second series two years later, '' Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers''. The following year, the two shows aired together under the umbrella block ''
The Disney Afternoon The Disney Afternoon (later known internally as the Disney-Kellogg Alliance when unbranded), sometimes abbreviated as TDA, was a created-for- syndication two-hour programming block of animated television series. It was produced by Walt Disney T ...
''. In the fall of 1990, Disney added another hour to ''The Disney Afternoon''; the block continued in syndication, running additional first-run animated series until 1999. These cartoons initially competed with the ones that were nationally televised on the broadcast networks. In the 1980s, national broadcast networks only aired cartoons on Saturday mornings, not competing with the weekday and Sunday syndication blocks aired by local independent stations; however, by the 1990s, Fox and then
The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...
launched their own weekday afternoon children's program blocks. By the end of the 1990s, both syndication distributors and broadcast networks ended up losing most of their children's market to the rise of cable television channels aimed at that audience such as
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
and
Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...
, which provided appealing children's entertainment throughout the week at nearly all hours. Syndication remains a method of choice for distributing children's programming, although this has gradually shifted to only produce programs to satisfy the federally mandated "
regulations on children's television programming in the United States The broadcast of educational children's programming by terrestrial television stations in the United States is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under regulations colloquially referred to as the Children's Television Act ...
" (E/I) rule imposed in the late 1990s as part of an amendment to the Children's Television Act of 1990 that requires stations to air three hours of educational children's programs every week, regardless of the station's format. Syndication is generally a less expensive option for a local station than to attempt to produce its own locally originated E/I programming; not all networks provide their own E/I programs, so stations that are affiliated with networks that do not carry children's program blocks acquire E/I programs off the syndication market to fulfill the requirements.


News programming and late-night talk shows

Also in the 1980s, news programming of various sorts began to be offered widely to stations. '' Independent Network News'', which was produced by
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City, serving as the ''de facto'' flagship of The CW Television Network. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, the station is operated by CW majority owner Nexstar Media Group under a local market ...
in New York City, was a half-hour nightly program that ran from 1980 to 1990 on
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
s (in some markets, ''INN'' was paired with a locally produced primetime newscast);
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
would offer a simulcast of programming from its sister network Headline News (now HLN) to broadcast stations later, as did its rival All News Channel, although both were used mainly to fill overnight time periods and were effectively discontinued in syndication when All News Channel folded in 2002 and HLN launched a "Headline Prime" talk show block in 2006. In 2019, NewsNet began offering a similar service to its affiliates. ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...
'' began its long and continuing run as a "soft" news daily strip, with a number of imitations following (among which have included such entertainment news shows as ''
TMZ on TV ''TMZ on TV'' (also known as ''TMZ on Fox'' and simply as ''TMZ'' or ''TMZTV'') is an American Broadcast syndication, syndicated Entertainment journalism, entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007 (its maj ...
'', ''
Extra Extra, Xtra, or The Extra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * The Extra (1962 film), ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * The Extra (2005 film), ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * Extra (newspaper), ...
'' and ''ET''s own spin-off '' The Insider''); and "tabloid" television, in the wake of ABC's '' 20/20'' and, more immediately,
20th Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...
's '' A Current Affair'', would become a syndication staple with such series as ''
Hard Copy In information handling, the U.S. Federal Standard 1037C (Glossary of Telecommunication Terms) defines a hard copy as a permanent reproduction, or copy, in the form of a physical object, of any media suitable for direct use by a person (in par ...
'' and '' Real TV''. Another area where network dominance was challenged by syndicated programming in the 1980s was with
late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show, originating in the American Media, United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is charact ...
s; ''
The Arsenio Hall Show ''The Arsenio Hall Show'' is an American syndicated late-night talk show created by and starring comedian Arsenio Hall. There have been two different incarnations of ''The Arsenio Hall Show''. The original series premiered on January 3, 1989 ...
'' was the only very successful one (it would be canceled after five years in 1994 due to ratings declines spurred by many CBS affiliates pushing the show to later timeslots following the debut of the ''
Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...
'', and was later revived in 2013), but similar programs were attempted such as
Alan Thicke Alan Willis Thicke (né Jeffrey; 1 March 1947 13 December 2016) was a Canadian-American actor, songwriter, and game/talk show host. He was the father of singer Robin Thicke. Thicke was best known for playing Dr. Jason Seaver on the 1980s sitco ...
's earlier short-lived '' Thicke of the Night'',
Lauren Hutton Lauren Hutton (born Mary Laurence Hutton; November 17, 1943) is an American model and actress. Born and raised in the southern United States, Hutton relocated to New York City in her early adulthood to begin a modeling career. Though she was ini ...
's innovatively shot ''Lauren Hutton and...'', and talk shows hosted by Dennis Miller,
Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ...
,
David Brenner David Norris Brenner (February 4, 1936 – March 15, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of observ ...
and
Keenen Ivory Wayans Keenen Ivory Desuma Wayans (born June 8, 1958) is an American actor, comedian, director and filmmaker. He is a member of the Wayans family of entertainers. Wayans first came to prominence as the host and creator of the 1990–1994 Fox sketch c ...
;
Magic Johnson Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. Often regarded as the greatest point guard of all time, Johnson List of NBA players who have spent their entire career w ...
's '' The Magic Hour'' was seen as a massive flop, similar to ''Thicke of the Night''. The popularity of syndicated talk shows fell dramatically in the mid-1990s as network and cable offerings expanded in the wake of
Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...
's retirement.


Reality and live-action children's shows

Long before their popularity on network television from the 2000s onward, reality competition shows in one form or another, such as ''
Star Search ''Star Search'' (later known as ''Ed McMahon's Star Search'') is an American television show that was produced by T.P.E./ Rysher Entertainment from 1983 to 1995, hosted by Ed McMahon, and created by Al Masini. A relaunch was produced by 29 ...
'' and '' American Gladiators'', enjoyed popularity in syndication as early as the mid-1980s. Since the now-defunct networks
UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...
and The WB began offering their affiliates additional nights of prime time programming in the late 1990s, there have been fewer first-run scripted series in syndication, at least, in the U.S.; much as with the closing of windows that provided opportunity for Ziv in the 1950s and various producers in the early 1970s. The more expensive dramatic projects are less attractive to syndicators (particularly when they might be sold, with somewhat less risk, to cable channels); "reality" series such as '' Cheaters'' and '' Maximum Exposure'' and several dating series began to be more common in the early 2000s. Some of the more low-key programs in this category were designed to appeal to children, such as '' Beakman's World'', '' Disney's Sing Me A Story with Belle'', ''Animal Rescue'' and ''
Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures ''Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures'' was a nature documentary video/television series that was run by Jack Hanna, Director Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, mo ...
''. They were able to get significant clearance because of stricter
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) enforcement of rules on
children's television Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...
programming.


Game shows

Several game shows are currently syndicated; historically, the most popular have been '' Wheel of Fortune'' and the current version of ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...
'', both created by television personality
Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (July 6, 1925 – August 12, 2007) was an American television show host and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway theatre, Broadway. From 1962 to 1986, G ...
, respectively premiering in 1983 and 1984. The shows have been No. 1 and No. 2 or No. 1 to No. 3 in the syndication ratings consistently since at least the late 1980s. In fact, according to the ''
Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...
'', ''Wheel'' is the most popular syndicated television program both within and outside the United States. ''
Family Feud ''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. Two families compete on each episode to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes. The show has had three separate runs, the ...
'', created by
Mark Goodson Mark Leo Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions. Early life and e ...
and
Bill Todman William Selden Todman (July 31, 1916 – July 29, 1979) was an American television producer and personality born in New York City. He produced many of television's longest-running shows with business partner Mark Goodson, with whom he created ...
, ended its first syndication run in 1985. Three years later, a revival of the program featuring Ray Combs as host became a moderate hit and continued for seven seasons, its last year featuring the return of original host Richard Dawson in a failed attempt to save the series. A third revival hit the airwaves in 1999 and has gone through four hosts. The first three hosts (
Louie Anderson Louis Perry Anderson (March 24, 1953 – January 21, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, author and game show host. He created the cartoon series ''Life with Louie'' and the television sitcom ''The Louie Show'', and wrote four books ...
,
Richard Karn Richard Karn (born Richard Karn Wilson; February 17, 1956) is an American actor, author and former game show host. He starred as Home Improvement (TV series)#Characters, Al Borland in the ABC series ''Home Improvement (TV series), Home Improveme ...
and
John O'Hurley John George O'Hurley Jr. (born October 9, 1954) is an American actor and game show host. He played Jacopo Peterman, J. Peterman on the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld'', provided the voice for King Neptune on ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', and hosted the game s ...
) struggled in their respective runs and only lasted three to four years. The current run of the program, hosted by
Steve Harvey Broderick Stephen Harvey Sr. Also aired August 16, 2015. (born January 17, 1957) is an American comedian, television host, actor, writer, and producer. He hosts ''The Steve Harvey Morning Show'', ''Family Feud'', ''Celebrity Family Feud'', '' ...
, has been a major ratings success; on the week of June 12, 2015, for the first time ever, ''Family Feud'' was the highest-rated syndicated program in terms of average household ratings. While the current version of ''
The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is an American television game show where contestants compete by guessing the prices of merchandise to win cash and prizes. A 1972 revival by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman of their The Price Is Right (1956 American game ...
'' (another Goodson-Todman game show) has enjoyed tremendous success on the CBS daytime schedule since its inception in 1972 under hosts
Bob Barker Robert William Barker (December 12, 1923 – August 26, 2023) was an American media personality, game show host, and animal rights advocate. He hosted CBS's '' The Price Is Right'', the longest-running game show in North American television ...
and
Drew Carey Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actor and game show host. After serving in the United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey gained stardom in his own Situa ...
, it has also produced three spinoffs, two of which failed after one season. The most successful syndicated edition was the 1972–80 weekly version that was initially hosted by
Dennis James Dennis James (born Demie James Sposa, August 24, 1917 – June 3, 1997) was an American television personality, philanthropist, and commercial spokesman. Until 1976, he had appeared on TV more times and for a longer period than any other televi ...
, but in 1977, daytime host Bob Barker also hosted the nighttime version for the final three seasons. For the 1985–86 season, Tom Kennedy (television host), Tom Kennedy hosted a daily syndicated version, and in 1994–95, Doug Davidson emceed his own daily syndicated version, titled ''The New Price Is Right (1994 game show), The New Price Is Right''. Unlike the daytime series, which expanded to its current one-hour length in 1975, the syndicated versions of ''Price'' were 30 minutes long. A ''
Hollywood Squares ''Hollywood Squares'' (originally ''The Hollywood Squares'', later stylized as ''H2: Hollywood Squares'') is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show originally aired as a ...
'' revival also thrived beginning in 1998 under host Tom Bergeron, running six seasons until its 2004 cancellation. By far the most successful entry into the market in the 2000s has been the daily version of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'', which premiered in September 2002 and was canceled in May 2019 after 17 seasons in syndication (and a total run of 20 seasons dating back to the show's premiere in August 1999). Because game shows are very inexpensive to produce, with many episodes completed each day of production, successful ones are very profitable; for example, in 1988 ''Jeopardy!'' cost an estimated $5 million to produce but earned almost $50 million in revenue. New game show concepts (that is, not based on an existing or pre-existing format) are rarely tried and usually unsuccessful in syndication; somewhat of an exception to this was ''Street Smarts (game show), Street Smarts'', which lasted from 2001 to 2006 (despite the series airing in late night slots in many markets). Between 2003 and 2007, no new game shows debuted in syndication, marking four consecutive seasons where no new shows with that genre debuted, a syndication first. That streak ended with the fall 2007 debuts of ''Temptation (2007 American game show), Temptation'' and ''Merv Griffin's Crosswords'', bringing the daytime tally to six game shows; both ended production after one year, though ''Crosswords'' aired in reruns in some cities during the 2008–09 season before those reruns moved exclusively to cable. More new shows were added for the 2008–09 fall season, including a daytime run of ''Deal or No Deal (American game show), Deal or No Deal'' (which featured certain elements that differed from the show's franchised format, most notably with prospective players instead of models holding briefcases that held the monetary amounts) and Trivial Pursuit: America Plays, an adaptation of the popular board game ''Trivial Pursuit (American game show), Trivial Pursuit''. While ''Deal or No Deal'' caught on and was renewed for the 2009–2010 season, ''Trivial Pursuit: America Plays'' suffered low ratings throughout its run and was canceled. For the 2009–2010 season, the Fox game show ''Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? (American game show), Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?'' moved to syndication with a new, less expensive format. ''Don't Forget the Lyrics!'' followed for the 2010–2011 season. ''Deal'', suffering from falling ratings, was canceled in February 2010, with the final episodes airing in late May of that same year; it would later be revived by CNBC in 2018. ''5th Grader'' and ''Don't Forget the Lyrics!'' were canceled the following year for the same reason (although ''5th Grader'' would later be revived by Fox and
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
on two different occasions). Reruns of the popular Discovery Channel show ''Cash Cab (American game show), Cash Cab'' began airing in syndication in January 2011. Reruns of the Game Show Network, GSN dating game show ''Baggage (American game show), Baggage'' first aired in syndication as a test run in early 2011 on stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which preceded its full launch into other markets in fall 2012; although it was removed from syndication after one season. The 2014–15 season saw the introduction of ''Celebrity Name Game (American game show), Celebrity Name Game'', hosted by former ''The Late Late Show (American talk show), The Late Late Show'' host Craig Ferguson; the series was renewed for a second season in January 2015, while Ferguson would also win a Daytime Emmy Award for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host for his work on the program. In January 2016, Fox owned-and-operated stations began a test run of ''South of Wilshire''—a game show produced by TMZ. The 2017 summer season includes the game show ''iWitness'' created by TV judge Judith Sheindlin. 2021 saw the debut of a revival of ''You Bet Your Life'' that reunited host Jay Leno and sidekick Kevin Eubanks from their time on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Tonight Show''; it ran two seasons, before Leno left during the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. 2022 saw the debut of a televised edition of the hit board game Pictionary (2022 game show), ''Pictionary'', and 2023 saw the debut of two new games, ''Person, Place or Thing'' and ''Who the Bleep Is That''. ''Who the Bleep Is That'' was cancelled in January 2024, while ''Pictionary'' and ''Person, Place or Thing'' were both cancelled in January 2025.


Stripped talk shows

The dominant form of first-run syndication in the U.S. for the last three decades has been the Stripping (television), "stripping" (or "strip") talk show, such as ''The Phil Donahue Show, Donahue'', ''The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah'', ''The Tyra Banks Show'', and ''The Jerry Springer Show, Jerry Springer''. Strip programming is a technique used for scheduling terrestrial television, television and radio broadcast programming, programming to ensure consistency and coherency. Strip programming is used to deliver consistent content to targeted audiences. Broadcasters know or predict the times at which certain demographics will be listening to or watching their programs and play them at that time. As with game shows, talk shows are inexpensive to produce and very profitable if successful. They have a disadvantage in that their costs can be higher than some other formats due to the high volume of episodes needed. In many markets, a stripped show will be seen twice daily, usually with different episodes (one being a more recent episode and the other being an episode from a previous season). Sometimes, station groups with more than one station in a market, or a "duopoly (broadcasting), duopoly", will run one episode of a strip on one of their stations in the morning, and the other available episode on another of their stations that night. Meanwhile, the popularity of some of the audience-participation talk shows continues to encourage new participants, some of whom, such as Morton Downey Jr. and Rosie O'Donnell, have brief periods of impressive ratings and influence; others, such as Oprah Winfrey and Maury Povich, have a sustained run. A notable scheduling decision was made by KRON-TV in San Francisco: a 2000 dispute with NBC led to that station's disaffiliation from that network after 52 years, and since all the other larger networks were already represented in San Francisco, KRON decided to become one of the largest commercial independent stations by market size on the very high frequency, VHF band in the U.S., and soon tried running ''Dr. Phil (talk show), Dr. Phil'', a popular new stripped series hosted by Winfrey-associate Dr. Phil McGraw, in primetime, with impressive ratings results. With a general decline in first-run production in the 2020s, syndicators and stations have turned to
rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word "repe ...
s of stripped talk shows to fill time slots, with observers noting that conflict-driven tabloid shows tend to draw higher ratings in reruns than non-tabloid shows.


2000s

First-run syndicated shows in the United States include talk shows (e.g., ''The Dr. Oz Show'', ''Dr. Phil (talk show), Dr. Phil'', ''The Real (talk show), The Real'', ''The Doctors (talk show), The Doctors'', ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' & ''The Kelly Clarkson Show''); tabloid/newsmagazine shows (e.g., ''TMZ Live''); crime/law enforcement shows (e.g., ''Crime Watch Daily''); game shows (e.g., ''
Hollywood Squares ''Hollywood Squares'' (originally ''The Hollywood Squares'', later stylized as ''H2: Hollywood Squares'') is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show originally aired as a ...
'', ''Funny You Should Ask (2017 game show), Funny You Should Ask'', ''
Family Feud ''Family Feud'' is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson. Two families compete on each episode to name the most popular answers to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes. The show has had three separate runs, the ...
'', ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...
'' and '' Wheel of Fortune''); court shows (e.g., ''Judge Judy'', ''Judge Mathis'', ''Judge Jerry'', ''Judge Faith'', ''Trifecta Entertainment & Media, Protection Court'', ''Hot Bench'', ''America's Court with Judge Ross'', and ''
The People's Court ''The People's Court'' is an American Court show#Arbitration-based reality court show, arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims court, small claims disputes in a simulation, simulated courtroom set. W ...
''); and sitcoms (e.g., ''The First Family (TV series), The First Family'').


Influence on television schedules

The emergence of barter syndication in the 1980s caused the number of independent stations to grow from fewer than 100 in 1980 to 328 , as they did not need cash for programming. With the loosening of FCC regulations and the creation of new additional broadcast networks (such as The CW and MyNetworkTV), most of these independents have joined one or another of these or smaller (religious or low-budget) networks. In other cases, like those of KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, KMCI-TV in Lawrence, Kansas, Lawrence-Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City and WMLW-TV in Racine, Wisconsin, Racine-Milwaukee, those independent stations are used to complement their network-affiliated sister station (respectively in the mentioned cases, KCBS-TV, KSHB-TV and WDJT-TV) by allowing a duopoly control of more syndicated programming than would be possible on one station (and to spread it throughout the schedule of the two stations, often several times a day), or to air news programming in times unavailable on the larger network station, along with fulfilling network and syndicated programming commitments, which allows popular or network programming to be moved to the independent stations due to breaking news or sports commitments without the traditional inconvenience of a late night or weekend airing of the pre-empted show. A duopoly of a network-affiliated and independent station also allows a network station to move a low-rated syndicated program to their sister independent station to stem revenue losses.


Off-network syndication

Off-network syndication occurs when a network television series is syndicated in packages containing some or all episodes, and sold to as many television stations and markets as possible to be used in local programming timeslots. In this manner, sitcoms are preferred and more successful because they are less serialized, and can be run non-sequentially, which is more beneficial and less costly for the station. In the United States, local stations now rarely broadcast reruns of primetime dramas (or simply air them primarily on weekends); instead, they usually air on basic cable channels, which may air each episode 30 to 60 times. Syndication rights typically last for six consecutive showings of a series within three to five years; if a program continues to perform well enough in broadcast or cable syndication during the initial cycle, television stations or cable networks can opt to renew an off-network program for an additional cycle. Syndication has been known to spur the popularity of a series that only experienced moderate success during its network run. The best known example of this is the original ''Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek'' series, which ran for three seasons on NBC from 1966 to 1969, gaining only modest ratings, but became a worldwide phenomenon after it entered off-network syndication. Its success in syndication led to the Star Trek (film series), ''Star Trek'' film series, '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', and the later versions in the franchise. It is common for long-running series to have early seasons syndicated while the series itself is still in first-run network production. To differentiate between new and rebroadcast content, until the 1980s it was not uncommon for series to be syndicated under a different title than that used in their original broadcast run. Examples include ''Bonanza (TV series), Bonanza'' (which was syndicated as ''Ponderosa''), ''Gunsmoke'' (as ''Marshal Dillon'', a title still used to differentiate reruns from the early, half-hour episodes of the show from the later one-hour episodes), ''Emergency!'' (as ''Emergency One''), ''Ironside (1967 TV series), Ironside'' (as ''The Raymond Burr Show''), ''Hawaii Five-O (1968 TV series), Hawaii Five-O'' (as ''McGarrett''), ''M*A*S*H (TV series), M*A*S*H'' (as ''M*A*S*H 4077th''), ''Marcus Welby, M.D.'' (as ''Robert Young, Family Doctor''), ''CHiPs'' (as ''CHiPs Patrol''), ''Happy Days'' (as ''Happy Days Again''), and ''The Andy Griffith Show'' (as ''Andy of Mayberry''). Syndication of older episodes can also increase exposure for a television show that is still airing first-run network episodes. In the case of the
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory'', its syndication, particularly on TBS (American TV channel), TBS, is one of the reasons attributed for a rise in first-run ratings for its sixth season. The sixth-season episode "The Bakersfield Expedition", for example, was the first episode of that series to attract 20 million viewers.Schneider, Michael (January 28, 2013). "Bigger ''Bang'' Than Ever". ''TV Guide''. pp. 6 and 7.


Strip/daily syndication

Off-network syndication can take several forms. The most common form is known as Stripping (television), strip syndication or daily syndication, when episodes of a television series are shown daily five times a week in the same time slot. In the 1960s and 1970s, independent stations with no news departments began viewing strip syndication as a necessary means of obtaining effective Counterprogramming (television), counterprogramming to the local news programs airing on network affiliates. Typically, this means that enough episodes must exist (88 episodes, or four seasons, is the usual minimum,Gerbrandt, Larry.
Hour dramas face risky economics
''The Hollywood Reporter'', March 19, 2010.
though many syndicators prefer a fully rounded
100 episodes In the U.S. television industry, 100 episodes is the traditional threshold for a television series to enter syndicated reruns. One hundred episodes are advantageous for stripped syndication because it allows for 20 weeks of weekday reruns (dep ...
) to allow for continual strip syndication to take place over the course of several months, without episodes being repeated. However, there are exceptions, such as the 65-episode block (common in children's programming), which allows for a 13-week cycle of daily showings, so there will only be four repeats in a year. In some cases, more than one episode is shown daily. Half-hour sitcoms are sometimes syndicated in groups of two or four episodes, taking up one or two hours of broadcast time. If a series is not strip syndicated, it may be aired once a week, instead of five times a week. This allows shows with fewer episodes to last long in syndication, but it also may mean viewers will tire of waiting a week for the next episode of a show they have already seen and stop watching. More often, hour-long dramas in their first several runs in syndication are offered weekly; sitcoms are more likely to get stripped. In recent years, there has been something of a trend toward showing two consecutive episodes of a program on Saturday and Sunday nights after prime time (generally following the local news). This pattern has been particularly prominent for shows which are still in production but have run long enough to have many previous episodes available. As with commercial stations, not all the airtime nor all the perceived audience are met by the productions offered U.S. public-broadcasting stations by
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
; additionally, there are some independent public television stations in the U.S. which take no programming from that (somewhat) decentralized network. As a result, there are several syndicators of programming for the non-profit stations, several of which are descendants of the regional station groups which combined some, not all, of their functions into the creation of PBS in 1969. American Public Television (APT) is the largest of these, nearly matched by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA, a merger of Southern Educational Communications Association and the Pacific Mountain Network). The now defunct Continental Program Marketing was another of the syndicator-descendants (of the Northeastern, Southeastern, and Rocky Mountain educational networks, respectively) of the pre-PBS era. Among the other notable organizations in the U.S. are Westlink Satellite Operations (based at Albuquerque's KNME) and Executive Program Services. Off-network syndication in its various forms, including Internet, international and traditional direct-to-station sales, constitute roughly half of an individual television program's overall revenue stream, with the other half taken up by advertising.


Monetary rates

In 1993, Universal Television became one of the first studios to cash in on the cable trend, first selling repeats of ''Major Dad'' to USA Network in 1993 for $600,000 per episode, the first time a network program was exclusively sold to a cable network for its first run rights. Later it sold reruns of ''
Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment and Universal Television, launching the ''Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire ...
'' to A&E (TV channel), A&E for about $155,000 an episode; in 1996, the studio got $275,000 from USA Network for repeats of ''New York Undercover'', a far less successful show. ''Law & Order'' drew A&E's highest daytime ratings – one million viewers per episode. Universal sold reruns of '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' and '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' to USA Network for $300,000 each. And even long-forgotten shows can find new life: Paramount Network bought ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' from Warner Bros. in 1997 for well over $10 million. USA Network paid $750,000 for the rights to ''Walker, Texas Ranger''; while USA's reruns of the show drew an average of 2.3 million viewers – outstanding by cable standards – Perth says the show will need "an enormous number of airings to have any sort of profitability."


Dramatic reruns: rerun prices

Sources: Industry sources and Paul Kagan Associates, Inc. Per episode Not all programs in syndication are sold for a fee. Less popular programming may be distributed by ''barter'', in which the syndicator, instead of selling the show to a station, offers the show for free, with the caveat that the station give up its advertising time on other shows to the syndicator's advertisers. Barter syndication, in addition to the cost advantage, is popular because of its flexibility; a station can typically pick up a barter syndicated program for only a few weeks or months, without the long-term financial commitment of a traditional syndicated series, allowing the station to plug the show into its lineup to fill a hole in the schedule.


Types of deals

Cash deals are when a distributor offers a syndicated program to the highest bidder. A cash plus deal is when the distributor retains advertising space to offset some of the cost for the program. The station gets the program for a little less in exchange for some ad space for the producer. Barter deals are usually for new untested shows or older shows. In this type of deal, distributors get a fraction of the advertisement revenue in exchange for their program. For example, in a 7/5 deal the producer gets seven minutes of advertising time, leaving five minutes for the station to insert local as well as national advertisements.


Radio syndication

Radio syndication generally works the same way as television syndication, except that radio stations usually are not organized into strict network affiliate, affiliate-only networks. Radio networks generally are only distributors of radio shows, and individual stations (though often owned by large Conglomerate (company), conglomerates) decide which shows to carry from a wide variety of networks and independent radio providers. As a result, radio networks such as Westwood One or Premiere Networks, despite their influence in broadcasting, are not as recognized among the general public as television networks like CBS or ABC (many of these distributors ally themselves with television networks; Westwood One, for instance, is allied with NBC News Radio, NBC News, while Premiere is allied with Fox News Radio, Fox). Some examples of widely syndicated commercial broadcasting music programs include weekly countdowns like Rick Dees' ''Weekly Top 40'', the ''American Top 40'', ''American Country Countdown'' with Kix Brooks, ''Canada's Top 20 Countdown'', the ''Canadian Hit 30 Countdown'' and the nightly program, ''Delilah Rene, Delilah'', heard on many U.S. stations. Syndication is particularly popular in talk radio. While syndicated music shows (with the exception of some evening and overnight shows such as ''Delilah'' mentioned above) tend to air once a week and are mostly recorded, most popular talk radio programs are syndicated daily and are broadcast live. Also, with relatively few 24-hour live talk radio networks (though this, in recent times, has been changing), most radio stations are free to assemble their own lineup of talk show hosts as they so choose. Examples of syndicated talk programs are Premiere Networks' ''The Bob & Tom Show'', Dial Global's ''Jim Bohannon, The Jim Bohannon Show'', and the self-syndicated ''The Dave Ramsey Show (radio program), The Dave Ramsey Show'' (more recently, talk networks such as Talk Radio Network have been marketing and packaging all-day lineups, marking a departure from the syndication model; as such, popular shows such as Cumulus Media Networks' ''The Savage Nation'' and Premiere's ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'' now air as part of a broader network lineup in many markets, particularly on Premiere
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
s, though they continue to be syndicated to non-network stations as well). Talk syndication tends to be more prevalent because voice tracking, a practice used by many music stations to have disc jockeys host multiple supposedly local shows at once, is not feasible with live talk radio. National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and American Public Media all sell programming to local member stations in the U.S., most of which are subsidized through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting but operated by private nonprofit organizations, universities, state or local governments. This is in contrast to centralized public radio networks in other countries (such as Canada's CBC Radio, CBC, Australia's Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC and the United Kingdom's BBC Radio, BBC) that own and operate all of their stations as arms of the national government and run them as a strict network (from 1948 to 2013, the United States had a strict anti-propaganda law, the Smith–Mundt Act, that prohibited broadcasting government-owned networks such as Voice of America to American audiences. The law was mostly repealed in 2013, but distribution of VOA or other federally produced radio programming is still rare). Two independently produced, non-commercial syndicated programs, heard on hundreds of community radio and indie radio stations, are ''Alternative Radio'' and ''Democracy Now!''. Some (in fact, most) radio programs are also offered on a barter system usually at no charge to the radio station. The system is used for live programming or preproduced programs and include a mixture of ad time sold by the program producer as well as time set aside for the radio station to sell.


History

Before radio networks matured in the United States, some early radio shows were reproduced on electrical transcription, transcription disks and mailed to individual stations. An example of syndication using this method was RadiOzark Enterprises, Inc. based in Springfield, Missouri, co-owned with KWTO (AM), KWTO. The Assembly of God, with national headquarters in Springfield, sponsored a half-hour program on the station called ''Sermons in Song.'' RadiOzark began transcribing the show for other stations in the 1940s, and eventually 200 stations carried the program. The company later produced country music programs starring among others, Smiley Burnette, George Morgan (singer), George Morgan, Bill Ring and Tennessee Ernie Ford (260 15-minute episodes of ''The Tennessee Ernie Show'' were distributed), and more than 1,200 U.S. and Canadian stations aired the programs. Many syndicated radio programs were distributed through the United States Postal Service, U.S. mail or another delivery service, although the medium changed as technology developed, going from transcription disks to phonograph records, Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, tape recordings, cassette tapes and eventually CDs. Many smaller weekend programs still use this method to this day, though with the rise of the Internet, many stations have since opted to distribute programs via CD-quality MP3s through File Transfer Protocol, FTP downloads. It was not until the advent of communications satellite in the 1980s that live syndication became popular (though it could be transmitted through network lines, it was not particularly common because of cost, network congestion and quality issues). Since then, most syndicated radio programs are distributed using satellite subcarrier audio technology. Shortly after satellite networks such as RKO Radio Networks, RKO, Transtar Radio Networks, Transtar, and Satellite Music Network, SMN began, the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, which is credited with helping Rush Limbaugh become the first national talk radio superstar. At the same time, the FCC began issuing more FM broadcasting licenses to suburban and rural areas in the late 1980s, which allowed more room for music stations on the FM dial; radio formats such as country music that were traditionally AM fixtures even after most pop and rock music moved to FM were now moving to FM as well, leaving much more room for talk formats on the AM dial. As the 1990s went on, Dr. Laura, Laura Schlessinger and Howard Stern began their national shows, rising to become national icons. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, which led to significant concentration of media ownership, facilitated the rapid deployment of both existing and new syndicated programs in the late 1990s, putting syndication on par with, and eventually surpassing, the radio network, network radio format. After the September 11 attacks, syndicated talk radio saw a notably rapid rise in popularity, as networks rushed new national shows into syndication to meet the demand for discussion of national issues. Many of these, such as Laura Ingraham, Bill O'Reilly (political commentator), Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, were mostly supportive of the actions of the Republican Party (United States), Republican-led government; a few others, such as Alex Jones, were openly critical of the government's actions and motives. After the Democratic Party (United States), Democrats took control in the late 2000s, the gap between the two styles narrowed due to the mutual opposition of both camps to the government's actions, which allowed Jones greater clearance on stations. In contrast to conservative talk radio, which has predominantly been driven by syndication, progressive talk radio has almost always been a network-driven model. The incompatibility of conservative and progressive ideologies and the lack of syndicated progressive hosts required solutions that could produce all-day programming to individual stations. It was not until Air America Radio launched in 2004 that progressive talk would become viable; though it failed several years later, Dial Global now carries a network slate that is carried on most progressive talk stations. Sports radio is likewise mostly a network phenomenon, partially because the irregular nature of sports pre-emptions makes having a full-time network to be able to cut into and join in progress at any time highly convenient. Syndicated radio is not as popular in other parts of the world. Canada has a few independently syndicated shows, but the bulk of syndicated content there comes from the United States, and the sum total of syndicated programming is far less than most American stations, as Canadian stations rely more heavily on local content. Most other countries still follow the network radio model.


International syndication

Syndication also applies to international markets. Same language countries often syndicate programs to each other – such as programs from the United Kingdom being syndicated to Australia and vice versa. Another example would be programs from the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina being syndicated to local television stations in the United States, and programs from the United States being syndicated elsewhere in the world. One of the best-known internationally syndicated television series has been ''
The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a variety sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and starring the Muppets. It is presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers interspersed with ongoing plot-lines with ru ...
'', which was produced by Grade's British ITV (TV network), ITV franchise company Associated Television, ATV at ATV Elstree Studios, Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, and was shown around the world, including the United States, where it aired in syndication (including the owned-and-operated stations of
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
), and Canada, where CBC Television aired the show. The 1970s was a time when many British comedies, including ''The Benny Hill Show'' and ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' were syndicated to the United States and worldwide. Many soaps and long-running series are also successfully syndicated around the globe. The television show ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' earned $1.6 million per episode in its first cycle in cable syndication. There were many different versions of the show making it an international success. It was already popular in the U.S., so becoming a success internationally as well as within the U.S. made syndication sensible. Whether a series is produced in the U.S. or not is based on the economic value and potential viability of its sales internationally with the possibility of syndication. Economic factors that influence production outside the U.S. play a major role in deciding if a television show will be syndicated, internally and internationally. International syndication has sustained a growing of prosperity and monetary value amongst the distributors who sell to them. Due to a rise in competition, syndicators have upheld high standards for different countries to buy the rights to distribute shows. During the 1990s poor ratings were common amongst syndicated shows, but distributors still made it possible for international competition to happen and buy U.S. shows. Colombian, Brazilian, Mexican and Venezuelan telenovelas are programmed throughout the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking world, and in many parts of India, Philippines, China and Europe, while Turkish television drama is broadcast in the Balkans, some other European countries, Western and Central Asia and North Africa.


American-style syndication internationally

Because of the structural differences discussed above, there are presently very few areas where a true American-style syndication model operates, whereby programs are sold on a per-area basis (within a single country) to local or regional stations with differing (or no) network affiliations. Canada was historically one of the few exceptions. Until the mid-1990s, television stations in Canada, like those in the U.S., were typically run as separate local operations, with a small number of moderately sized ownership groups such as Bell Media, Baton, Canwest, Western International Communications, WIC, and CHUM Limited, CHUM. Those stations that were affiliated with a national network, i.e. CBC Television, CBC or CTV Television Network, CTV, did not always receive a full schedule of programming from that network. At this time, it was not uncommon for American syndicators to treat Canada as an extension of their domestic syndication operations, for both their first-run and off-network offerings. This is still the case for American radio programs; Canadian radio networks are not assembled as rigidly into networks (except for the CBC's radio division). However, an alternate form of first-run syndication was performed by some domestic broadcasters: as the Canadian rights to American primetime series were often acquired by individual station groups (as opposed to full-fledged national networks), they would in turn resell local rights for those programs to stations in areas where they did not operate. A few of Canada's independent station (North America), independent stations, most notably CHCH-DT, CHCH-TV and CITY-DT, CITY-TV, also resyndicated their own locally produced programs to other television stations. Unlike in the United States, however, few Canadian programs were ever created solely for syndication without officially belonging to at least one specific station or network; those that did exist were intended primarily to be syndicated into the American system, and even those were typically distributed in Canada as "network" programs rather than being sold to individual stations. Since the late 1990s, as most stations have been consolidated into national networks consisting almost entirely of
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
s and with full-day network schedules, both types of syndication have largely disappeared from the Canadian broadcast landscape. Programs that are sold in syndication in the U.S. are now generally sold to Canadian media groups to air across all their properties, with per-market sales now being very rare. For example, American shows that air in syndication in the United States, such as ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' or ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', air in Canada as core parts of the CTV Television Network schedule. ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' appears to have been the last significant holdout to this model, having aired primarily on CTV stations, but in some markets airing instead on a Global Television Network, Global station, and even some CBC affiliates. One syndication service remains in Canada, Yes TV, which serves the few remaining independent stations in the country with mostly American programs (''Judge Judy'', ''Wheel of Fortune'' and ''Jeopardy!'' are currently syndicated in Canada through Yes TV). These independent stations can also secure deals with American syndicators; CHCH, for example, has a direct deal with
20th Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...
to carry some of that company's classic sitcoms, including those from the MTM Enterprises library. They were also, in 1986, largely involved in production of the final incarnation of ''Split Second (game show), Split Second'' game show, which was syndicated in U.S. by Viacom (1952–2006), Viacom.


Regional syndication

There are three key reasons why a radio station will decide to pick up a syndicated show – the program is unique and has difficult to replicate content, has a decent ratings track record or offers a celebrity host. New developing radio programs are generally able to claim one of these attributes, but not all three. Regional syndication attempts to replace these benchmark attributes with other benefits that are generally recognized by the industry as also being important. Given the financial downturn within the industry, the need for quality cost effective locally relevant programming is greater than ever before. Programs that offer regionally specific content while providing the economic benefits of syndication can be especially appealing to potential affiliates. Regional syndication can also be more attractive to area advertisers who share a common regional trading area versus assembling a radio network of stations that hopscotch across the United States.


See also

*
100 episodes In the U.S. television industry, 100 episodes is the traditional threshold for a television series to enter syndicated reruns. One hundred episodes are advantageous for stripped syndication because it allows for 20 weeks of weekday reruns (dep ...
* Direct-to-video * First run (filmmaking) * Flagship (broadcasting) * Print syndication *
Rerun A rerun or repeat is a rebroadcast of an episode of a radio or television program. The two types of reruns are those that occur during a hiatus and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Variations In the United Kingdom, the word "repe ...
* Syndication exclusivity * Video on demand * Web syndication


References


Sources

*
Television Obscurities – The Syndicated Season: 1987–1988C21 Media
– daily news about the TV business
Radio-Info.com Discussion Boards > National Television Topics > Syndication TV
(archived 25 June 2011)
Uso del Feed para sindicación
– Web de Mangotropia (archived 25 March 2016) {{American broadcast radio Television syndication, * Television terminology Radio syndication,