Fall syndication lineup: More Judy, and Urkel returns

 

New TV era means a new way of doing business

Back in the late 1980s when cable TV was growing, a big deal was made about syndicated exclusively, or “syndex” as local broadcasters complained about national “superstations” such as WWOR-TV in New York and WGN-TV in Chicago draining rating points from their programs. And so, on January 1, 1990, the FCC’s new syndex rules took effect, requiring cable operators to black out programming on those superstations if the local station or syndicator had syndex rights to a show in their contract. 

Today, the industry is far different as platform sharing is very common. The “superstations” went away some time ago, and the industry’s chief defender of syndex, Chris-Craft/United – who ironically bought WWOR in 1993 and an initial partner in UPN, was bought by Fox in 2000. Now, most syndicated programs are not just on the local station- they’re on digital subchannels, FAST networks, YouTube, and other platforms to reach more viewers – especially younger people who aren’t bothering with linear TV. It’s a way to keep programming economically viable in a world where audience fragmentation and more than one thousand channels in the marketplace are a reality. 

“In an era of declining linear cable, we needed to be more distribution forward.” Good Morning Football: Overtime executive producer Michael Davies told Broadcasting and Cable. “I really believed we could make this show work and not just as an NFL show or a sports-talk show. This goes beyond sports.” 

This is one of the reasons why the NFL and Sony created GMFB: Overtime, the first-of-its-kind sports strip in daytime syndication, which premiered September 2 on more than 100 stations, including Chicago’s My50 (WPWR-TV.) weekdays at 11 a.m. An extension of NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, Ten Fox-owned stations are the main launch station group for the show. NFLN and The Roku Channel – a FAST platform that also airs MLB’s Sunday Leadoff, airs the first two hours live from 9-11 a.m. Central Time.

GMFB Overtime is mostly cleared in late morning time slots, but two Fox-owned stations are airing the show in later time slots – KDFI Dallas (8 p.m.) and KCOP Los Angeles (7 p.m.)

Meanwhile, a series from a streamer is marking its first foray into syndication as Judy Justice premieres September 9. Syndicated by upstart Sox Entertainment with Amazon MGM, Justice is similar to Judy Sheindlin’s previous court show Judge Judy – whose reruns are still run by local stations (including Weigel’s WCIU/The U) and premiered two years ago on Freevee, Amazon’s FAST platform, which also has original fare. 

Nexstar is the major launch group for Justice, airing on its CW affiliates in seven of the top ten largest markets, including WPIX New York, KTLA Los Angeles, and Chicago, where Justice is airing at 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Nexstar’s WGN-TV, using it as a news lead-in (and not WCIU as this space wrongly predicted in January) as they continue to air Judy: Original Recipe from 4-6 p.m, so Chicago viewers will have three hours of Judy a day if you know how to manage the remote. New episodes of Justice continue on Freevee.

The third major new syndicated strip is The Flip Side with former Family Matters star Jaleel White as host from CBS Media Ventures. CBS’ independent stations are the launch group and premieres Monday at 7 p.m. for a full hour on The U, while another run was sold to Game Show Network for airing starting on September 16. 

Other new shows are coming from the reality TV genre: Warner Bros. True Crime News, airing on Fox 32 (WFLD) at 10 p.m. Monday -Thursdays and an hour after football on Fridays (time approximate) with Ana Garcia as host and Fox as the launch group. Trifecta Entertainment’s Crime Expose With Nancy O’Dell premieres September 23 at 10:30 p.m. on Fox 32 and focuses on one case per episode.

As mentioned here before, two new off-network sitcoms are premiering September 9: Warner’s Bob Hearts Abishola and Debmar-Mercury’s The Conners, both double-run at 8 and 9 p.m. respectively over The U (Conners reruns will also continue to air sporadically on The CW in primetime.) Also, USA Network’s Suits reruns are coming to MyNetworkTV starting September 24 with a separate syndication run from NBCUniversal beginning the weekend of September 15 with My50 airing it from 3-6 p.m. Sundays. 

And to the surprise of…well, almost everybody, Modern Family enters a second syndication cycle with the show moving to The U weeknights at 11 p.m. and various weekend time slots starting Monday after spending eleven years at Fox’s duopoly stations in one of the worst off-network syndication deals in recent history. Disney also licensed the show to Nick At Nite for an overnight run starting Tuesday while TBS continues to air Modern Family in more viable time slots. 

What’s out

As reported here earlier, Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers have already left syndication after long runs. Other off-network series shown on the door due to expiring contracts include Storage Wars, Mom, and The King Of Queens, which relocates to Cozi TV on Monday. 

The lone first-run show being dropped is Who Is The Bleep Is That, which aired on a limited number of Fox stations, including Fox 32 and My50. 

Also out are Jerry Springer reruns, meaning there will be no linear TV presence of the once-popular daily rumblefest for the first time in over 30 years. Original production ended in 2018, and Springer himself died last year. 

On the weekend front, CBS Media Ventures is replacing SEAL Team encores in syndication with off-network episodes of NCIS: Hawaii, a procedural CBS canceled last season after a three-season and 54-episode run (this likely is a one-season and done off-network show.) The program is paired with the Queen Latifah version of The Equalizer in most markets, including CBS Chicago in late-night hours. 

Also exiting is Sony’s The Good Doctor after two seasons and Warner Bros. Major Crimes. 

[Editor’s Note: An earlier draft incorrectly stated Crime Expose was not cleared in the Chicago market.]