What does syndicated tv mean

As with radio in the U. Some stations were not affiliated with any network. Both groups sought to supplement their locally produced programming and whatever network feeds there were with content that could be flexibly scheduled.

The development of videotape and, much later, enhanced satellite downlink 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.

Ziv Television Programs, Inc. Some first-run syndicated series were picked up by networks in the s and early '60s, notably The Adventures of Superman and Mr. The networks started syndicating their reruns in the late s, and first-run syndication shrank sharply, for a decade. Some stalwart series continued, notably Death Valley Days ; other ambitious projects were also to flourish, however briefly, such as The Play of the Week — , produced by David Susskind of the syndicated talk show Open End and also producer of such network fare as NYPD.

However, FCC rulings in the late s curtailed the U. Buckley, Jr. The more obvious result was an increase in Canadian-produced syndicated dramatic series, such as Dusty's Trail 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 , cancelled by NBC in , had a continuing life as syndicated programming tailor-made for the early fringe.

Into the s, 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 , and 20th Century Fox 's That's Hollywood , a television variation on the popular That's Entertainment! There were also many imported programs distributed this way.

The Starlost was a Canadian series, apparently modified from the vision of science fiction writers Harlan Ellison and Ben Bova. Game shows thrived in syndication in the decade. Five-day-a-week versions of What's My Line?

Of these shows, Let's Make a Deal and Hollywood Squares were the first to jump to twice-a-week syndicated versions around Another popular daytime show to have a weekly syndicated version was The Price Is Right hosted at first by Dennis James and later by daytime host Bob Barker. The night-time version of Family Feud quickly jumped from once-weekly to twice, and finally to five-days-a-week, and its massive popularity, along with that of new five-a-day entries like Jack Barry's The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough and Chuck Barris's increasingly raunchy remakes of his '60s hits The Newlywed Game and The Dating Game , 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 , hosted by Barris throughout most of its run. Also notable was the growing success of audience-participation talk shows, particularly that of the innovator of the format, Phil Donahue.

First-run syndication in the s also made it possible for some shows no longer wanted by network television to remain on the air. In , ABC cancelled The Lawrence Welk Show , 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 stations by the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority. Lassie entered first-run syndication for two years, while Hee Haw continued to produce new episodes until Throughout the mid to late s, sitcoms continued to enter first-run syndication after being canceled by the networks, the most successful of which were Mama's Family and Charles In Charge.

Many of these sitcoms produced new shows in syndication mainly to have enough episodes for a profitable run in rerun syndication. Other sitcoms, such as Small Wonder , enjoyed success in syndication throughout the entire run. The broadcast networks aired many action-adventure programs from the s to the s.

By the late s, 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 were unable to fully recoup the shows' costs using the traditional deficit financing model.

Its great success caused many others to appear; by there were more than 20 one-hour syndicated shows. The next syndicated shows that debuted in were War of the Worlds and Freddy's Nightmares.

Baywatch , which debuted in on NBC and was cancelled after one season also became one of the most watched syndicated shows throughout its ten-year-run, garnering a worldwide audience. Another series to be one of the few shows to nearly match Baywatch would be the television series Renegade.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was also syndicated. Three years later, a second Gene Roddenberry series, Andromeda also premiered in syndication. Shows featuring competition in one form or another, such as Star Search and American Gladiators , also enjoyed popularity in syndication around this time.

In the s, independent stations signed on in medium 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 following year, the two shows aired together under the umbrella title The Disney Afternoon. In , Disney added another hour; the block aired in syndication until These cartoons initially competed with the nationally broadcasted ones.

In the '80s, National TV only aired Saturday mornings , not competing with the weekday and Sunday blocks of syndication aired by local independent stations but; however, by the '90s, Fox and then WB started airing weekday afternoon blocks. By the end of the '90s both syndicated and national TV ended up losing most of its children's market to the rise of cable TV channels like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network which provided appealing children's entertainment throughout the week at nearly all hours.

Also in the s, news programming of various sorts began to be offered widely to stations. Independent Network News , which was produced at WPIX studios in New York City, was a half-hour weekdaily program that ran for several years on independent stations ; CNN would offer a package of its Headline News to broadcast stations later, though it was used mainly to fill overnight time periods and was effectively discontinued in syndication with the launch of their "Prime" talk show block.

Another area where network dominance was challenged by syndicated programming in the s was in late-night talk shows; The Arsenio Hall Show was the only very successful one, but Alan Thicke 's earlier short-lived Thicke of the Night , Lauren Hutton 's innovatively shot Lauren Hutton and The popularity of syndicated talk shows fell dramatically in the mids as network and cable offerings expanded in the wake of Johnny Carson 's retirement.

As UPN and the WB began offering their affiliates ever-more nights of prime time programming, less call has been felt for first-run drama, at least, in the U. 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 series about dating stunts began to be more common in the early s.

Some of the more low-key programs in this category were designed to appeal to children, such as Beakman's World , Animal Rescue and Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures. They were able to get significant clearance because of stricter Federal Communications Commission FCC enforcement of rules on children's television series programming.

Several game shows are currently syndicated; the most popular by far are Wheel of Fortune and the late version of Jeopardy! The shows have been or in the syndication ratings consistently since at least the late s.

In fact, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, Wheel is the most popular syndicated television program not only in the United States, but worldwide as well. Family Feud ended its first syndication run in ; a revival was a moderate hit from to and still another revival has been airing since A Hollywood Squares revival also thrived beginning in , running six seasons until its cancellation. By far the most successful entry into the market in the s has been the daily version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire , premiering in Because game shows are very inexpensive to produce, with many episodes completed each day of production, successful ones are very profitable; for example, in Jeopardy!

Between and , no new games debuted in syndication, marking four consecutive seasons where no new game show debuted, a syndication first.

The Fall debuts of Temptation and Merv Griffin's Crosswords helped stop that streak, bringing the daytime tally to six game shows; both ended production after one year, though Crosswords aired in reruns during the season before those reruns moved exclusively to cable. More new shows were added for Fall , including a daytime run of Deal or No Deal and an adaptation of the popular board game Trivial Pursuit.

While Deal caught on and was renewed for the season, Trivial Pursuit: America Plays suffered low ratings throughout its run and was canceled. Don't Forget the Lyrics! Deal , suffering from falling ratings, was canceled in February , with the final episodes airing in late May of that same year. The dating game show Baggage had a syndicated test run in early The dominant form of first-run syndication in the U.

As with game shows, talk shows are inexpensive to produce and very profitable if successful. Sometimes, station groups with more than one station in a market, or a " 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. A dispute with NBC led to their 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-market independent commercial stations on the VHF band in the U.

There is simply not enough content being created on a frequent enough basis to meet television viewing habits. All channels, especially topical channels such as the Game Show Network, need syndication to fill out their programming schedules. Some networks are almost entirely made up of a mix of first-run and off-network syndicated programs and licensed films, of course. For creators of original programming, syndication does more than simply help extend the financial life of a program, it helps to keep it in the cultural conversation.

Shows like M. Similarly, shows that are syndicated before they reach the end of their initial run often see an increase in viewership for their new episodes, making syndication a very lucrative way to boost prime time viewership for a popular property.

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