Monday, May 21, 2007

25 Years of Syndie Landmarks

Another from Todd Mason, who's not impressed.

TV Week: "25 Years of Syndie Landmarks A Business Model Built on Trials and Celebrity News, Sci-Fi and `Xena,' and a Ton of Talk Shows"

2 comments:

Brent McKee said...

It is unfortunate that the first run syndication market - for dramas at least - was destroyed by the creation of The WB and UPN.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it was bolstered by those two networks, at very least at first. Particularly as UPN began operations with two nights per week of primetime and WB with one night. Neither ever managed to schedule 7 nights a week, nor has their successor the CW. First-run drama was done in by the poor quality of much dumped into that market, and in part by the good material being snapped up by cable, which often has been responsible for latter-day syndie drama hours (such as STARGATE and FARSCAPE). Program Partners has had some success importing Canadian shows, despite foolishly running DA VINCI'S INQUEST out of episode order so it often makes little sense from week to week.