What is syndication and why did tv shows used to pump out so many episodes trying to get it?
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TLDR: Syndication is another word for re-run, and that’s how major TV networks made their money on shows.
TV networks make money on ads, selling time on the air to run commercials. Without that revenue the network couldn’t afford to pay anyone let alone the cost of making shows. But you can’t rely 100% on original and new content, you need shows to fill time on the air.
Syndication meant re-airing the same episode of a show over and over again usually in less desirable time slots like during the day or after school.
In this way you could sell ads associated with those slots and make more money on a show that you had already paid for a long time ago. So even though you could sell a single Ad on a new episode during prime time for a lot of money, in the long run you would make far more money selling ads on re-runs of the show.
Syndicated TV shows could also be sold to other networks including foreign stations, getting even more money for the shows you created.
But to have a show available for syndication meant having at least 3 seasons worth so that you could air 5 episodes a week without repeating them for months otherwise it would get boring quick.
Even shows that did poorly would often get a 3rd or 4th lower budget season just to make sure they had enough episodes to air re-runs.
Star Trek is the quintessential example of this. When it was first aired it didn’t do particularly well and the studio fought to get a 3rd season done just to have enough episodes to put it into syndication. Star Trek didn’t become a huge hit until *after* it started being aired in the after school time slot. Unfortunately by that point all of the sets had been destroyed and they couldn’t make any more episodes, leading the short lived animated series and it’s eventual revival with the movies and new shows in the 80s.
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