I’ve always heard about the concept of syndication and having to hit x number of episodes to “hit syndication” but I’ve never understood what it means. For example [on this day in 1994](https://twitter.com/dailysimpsons/status/1571892641889153025?t=y-ieaFcMZWeLz0vaMMbZvg&s=19) The Simpsons entered syndication:
>Local Fox stations aired repeats 5 days a week, up to 3 times a day
But this doesn’t really shed light on what syndication *is* because I don’t get why, The Simpsons being a Fox show, needed some special status to be broadcast at certain times. It also of course doesn’t explain when shows go into syndication on other networks ie Adult Swim airing Family Guy or Futurama back in the day.
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Syndication means you have enough episodes to now bundle them together and license them to other broadcasters to show on their own platforms or stations. That’s a big milestone because you can make tons of money through other stations showing re-runs of your shows for years and years and years. Seinfeld is still being shown in syndication decades later.
There are two things to know. First, the big TV networks don’t really have a universal channel that plays across the country. Instead, they play their content on local stations that are network affiliates. Second, shows are made to be played on the creator network while they are active shows. Fox made the Simpsons to be played on Fox affiliate stations while the Simpsons is currently making new episodes. Everywhere in the country on all Fox affiliates, the Simpsons will play on Sunday at 8pm (or in the early 90s, on Tuesdays).
Now, the local TV station does not have 100% of its timeslots booked by the big network. For example, the big network leave spots open for them to play local news. Also, timeslots not in primetime (morning, afternoon, and late at night) are often open whatever they want to play. With these open slots, the local TV station can pay for and show just about any show that is on the market. Also, there are many TV stations that are not affiliated with a big network, and simply buy and show what shows/movies they can get their hands on.
This is what syndication is. It is when you buy the rights to existing episodes of a show and show them on your station. For example, my Fox station when I was young was Q13 Fox (Washington State). Q13 used to show Simpson episodes at 5pm every weekday. For that to happen, Q13 would have to come up with a separate deal to buy those episodes. Maybe the local Fox station for Texas would buy Simpsons episodes and play them at 7pm every weekday. Maybe a station in Illinois called “Big Star TV” bought the show and is playing it at 6pm. Either way, these stations would pay Fox and the Simpsons the right to uses their episodes.
One interesting note about syndication is that the show Star Trek: The Next Generation, was a first run syndication show. This meant that while the show was active, it was not exclusively shown on any network. Instead, the show sold off its new episodes to whatever TV station wanted to buy them. If I remember correctly, TNG was shown on the Q13 Fox affiliated at 10pm on Fridays, or something like that. Maybe in New York, it they would show it on the ABC affiliate, and on an NBC affiliate in Colorado, etc.
It’s selling the rights to air re-runs of shows. It’s how all those channels get the episodes of Simpsons, Friends, Brady Bunch, any old show that’s run daily or multiple times a day.
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