Thoughts on Syndication

I just saw a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal trumpeting the power of Seinfeld in syndication, and it made me wonder just how much power Jerry might be able to exercise over syndication.

For example, many of you may know that Garry Trudeau requires newspapers to run Doonesbury at a certain minimum size. I believe that Bill Watterson was also able to require newspapers to carry the Calvin & Hobbes Sunday Strips in a certain format.

I know that the episodes currently in syndication are cut 1-2 minutes to allow for more commercials. I wonder if Jerry could pull something similar to Trudeau and Watterson with syndication by requiring stations to run the episodes uncut and with breaks in the original order?

I could be wrong, but aren't all the syndicated episodes (at least the ones from Monday to Friday) identical in every market, or is the order up to the local affiliate? Someone please answer this for me.

VPaterno ([email]) wrote:

This is true for Boston, anyway. Of course, our affiliate (UPN 38), also broadcasts Bruin and Celtics games. I don't if they the show the episodes the next day, or after the game. I though the sequence were up to the affiliates, but its not so for _Seinfeld_. I think its different for other shows, though.

The sequence is the same nationally, but different cities might be a day or two off. For example, in Columbus, Seinfeld airs on the ABC affiliate at 11:30 p.m. Thus, it isn't aired on Mondays when "Monday Night Football is on, and we are one show off until Saturday, when they run two episodes. Confused?

Yes, that's true. I know that because I can watch syndie Seinfeld on 3 different stations from 3 different cities, and they're all the same episode every night.

Bill Lentz wrote:

Interesting thought. I remember reading a long time ago, when the show was about to enter its first syndication cycle, that Mr. Seinfeld was working during that show's hiatus on choosing which two minutes would be cut. I don't know if that's indicative of whether or not he had to do it or chose to do it, but I think it's entirely possible (and indeed probable) that Mr. Seinfeld willingly would go along with the cuts. In the end, it's all about money, and exposing the show to more commercial potential increases its value (and Mr. Seinfeld's end of the cache). Also, by mutilating the episodes a bit, a strategic advantage is acquired for future release of the series on video.

actually, I wasn't as much interested in the order the shows were aired as I was curious to see if the show had the strength to demand that it be shown without cutting for the extra commercials required in syndication.