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 "repeat" refers only to a single episode; "rerun" or "rerunning" is the preferred term for an entire series/season. A "repeat" is a single episode of a series that is broadcast outside its original timeslot on the same channel/network. The episode is usually the "repeat" of the scheduled episode that was broadcast in the original timeslot earlier the previous week. It allows viewers who were not able to watch the show in its timeslot to catch up before the next episode is broadcast. The term "rerun" can also be used in some respects as a synonym for "reprint", the equivalent term for print items; this is especially true for print items that are part of ongoing series such as comic strips. (Peanuts, for instance, has been in reruns since the retirement and death of creator Charles M. Schulz). In South Africa, reruns of the daily soap opera 7de Laan and others are called an omnibus. The omnibus is a weekly rerun that is broadcast on a Sunday afternoon on the original channel/network. It only broadcasts the past week's episodes back-to-back.
When used to refer to the rebroadcast of a single episode, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are generally credited as the inventors of the rerun. It was first used for the American television series I Love Lucy (1951–57) during Ball's pregnancy. Prior to I Love Lucy rerunning its episodes during the summer, shows typically went on a summer hiatus and were replaced with summer replacements, generally lower-priority programs; this strategy has seen increased use in the 21st century as fewer episodes have been produced each season and in-season reruns have increased. Rod Serling's 1955 teleplay Patterns was credited with proving reruns' viability. Buoyed by strong word of mouth, the rerun of Patterns drew more viewers than the first run as people who had missed the first airing a month prior tuned in to catch the reairing.[1]
Reruns in the United States
In the United States, most television shows from the late 1940s and early 1950s were performed live, and in many cases, they were never recorded. However, television networks in the United States began making kinescope recordings of shows broadcast live from the East Coast. This allowed the show to be broadcast later for the West Coast. These kinescopes, along with previously filmed shows, and later, videotape, paved the way for extensive reruns of syndicated television series.[2]
During hiatus
In the United States, currently running shows rerun older episodes from the same season to fill the time slot with the same program during the "off-season" period when no new episodes are being made. Shows tend to start rerunning episodes after the November
The number of episodes per season, originally well over 30 episodes during the 1950s and 1960s, dropped below 26 (the number of episodes required to fill a time slot for a year without rerunning any episode more than once) in the 1970s. Specials typically pad out the remainder of the schedule.[3]
Television specials
Often, if a
Seasonal programming such as
Syndication
A television program goes into
Few people anticipated the long life that a popular television series would eventually have in syndication, so most performers signed contracts that limited residual payments to about six repeats. After that, the actors received nothing and the production company would keep 100% of any income until the copyright expired; many shows did not even have their copyrights renewed and others were systematically destroyed, such was the lack of awareness of the potential for revenue from them. This situation went unchanged until the mid-1970s, when contracts for new shows extended residual payments for the performers, regardless of the number of reruns, while tape recycling effectively came to an end (rapid advancements in digital video in the 1990s made preservation far more economical) and the Copyright Act of 1976 extended copyright terms to much longer lengths, eliminating the need for renewal.
Once a series is no longer performing well enough to be sold in syndication, it may still remain in barter syndication, in which television stations are offered the program for free in exchange for a requirement to air additional advertisements (without compensation) bundled with the free program during other shows (barter syndication is far more common, if not the norm, in radio, where only the most popular programs charge rights fees). The Program Exchange was once the most prominent barter syndicator in United States television, offering mostly older series from numerous network libraries. Barter syndicated series may be seen on smaller, independent stations with small budgets or as short-term filler on larger stations; they tend not to be as widely syndicated as programs syndicated with a rights fee. Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) relies on the barter model for its revenue.[4]
Classic television
With the growing availability of cable and satellite television channels, as well as over-the-air digital subchannels, combined with a growing body of available postsyndication programming, a handful of specialty channels have been built solely or primarily to run former network programming, which otherwise would no longer be in syndication. Branded as "classic television", these often carry reruns of programming dating back to the black-and-white television era and are promoted as nostalgia. The corresponding radio format would be that of an oldies, classic rock, classic hits, or adult standards station. Depending on the programs chosen for a classic network, running the format can be very inexpensive, due to many shows beginning to fall into the public domain.
On cable and satellite, channels that devote at least some of their program schedule to postsyndication reruns include
).Traditionally, shows most likely to be rerun in this manner are
DVD retail
With the rise of the
Some television programs that are released on DVD (particularly those that have been out of production for several years) may not have all of the seasons released, either due to poor overall sales or prohibitive costs for obtaining rights to music used in the program; one such incidence is
TV listings
TV Guide originally used the term "rerun" to designate rebroadcast programs, but abruptly changed to "repeat" between April and May in 1971.
Other TV listings services and publications, including local newspapers, often indicated reruns as "(R)"; since the early 2000s, many listing services only provide a notation if an episode is new -"(N)", with reruns getting no notation.
Repeats internationally
Reruns are often carried by Canadian broadcasters in much the same way as they are in the United States, especially on
In the United Kingdom, most drama and comedy series run for shorter seasons – typically six, seven, or thirteen episodes – and are then replaced by others. An exception is soap operas, which are either on all year-round (for example, EastEnders and Coronation Street), or are on for a season similar to the American format.
As in the U.S., fewer new episodes are made during the summer. Until recently, the
Syndication did not exist as such in United Kingdom until the arrival of
It has been common practice by networks, notably the BBC, to rerun some series after they have not fared particularly well on their original run. This was particularly common with sitcoms such as The Office, which had very low ratings in its first series, as well as a poor reception from both critics and focus groups and was almost cancelled.[6] The series started to gain traction once the BBC decided to repeat it in a different timeslot and The Office went on to be an award-winning and critically acclaimed show which has regularly featured in lists of the Best Sitcoms ever. In 2019, the series was ranked 6th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century.[7]
Early on in the history of British television, agreements with the actors' union
See also
- First run
References
- ^ Gould, Jack. "TV: Twice-Told Tale". New York Times, February 11, 1955. p. 31. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, New York Times (1851–2006)
- ISBN 0-415-97054-7.
- ^ "THE LOONEY TUNES TELEVISION SPECIALS". Archived from the original on March 11, 2005.
- ^ Morrison, Sara (2023-05-24). "The Wild West of streaming TV is here and it's free". Vox. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
- ^ "TVShowsOnDVD.com - The "What's The Hold-up?" FAQ". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-15.
- ^ "20 Surprising Facts About The Office". www.mentalfloss.com. 2017-03-07. Retrieved 2021-09-06.
- ^ "The 100 best TV shows of the 21st century". The Guardian. 2019-09-16. Retrieved 2021-09-06.