Is Syndication As We Know It Done?

Back in the day, there used to be cool shows in syndication like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Friday The 13th The Series. I mean I liked the shows and we had other shows like the ones from the Action Pack that included Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. We were talking at work about our favorite syndicated shows and another question came up. Is syndication as we knew it dead? It really feels like it is due to cable and satellite becoming less popular and also with streaming taking over. What does everyone here think? Also, what were some of everyone’s favorite syndicated shows? I loved Jack of All Trades with Bruce Campbell.

I agree that streaming has become the dominant option in television/movie viewing. We live in a time where people want their entertainment now. It's convenient to wake up at 3am and have a binge watch session of older shows. Cable and satellite prices are getting up there, and streaming costs much less, and gives you so much more to enjoy.

Star Trek TNG happens to be one of my favorite shows. Other syndicated shows make up a very long list, including Law & Order: SVU, NCIS, House, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Flashpoint.

It is, and I'm afraid it has been for a while. Star Trek was once the flagship of syndicated television, and now it's a Paramount+ exclusive entity. That's how dominate streaming has become. It's cheaper and you can find pretty much any show or movie you could dream of watching housed somewhere. I'm afraid Television as we know it, or used to know it, may be on life support. I give it another decade before Cable Companies bleed so many customers that they pivot their business model to offering a selection of various streaming services as opposed to signing expensive contracts to offer television networks fewer and fewer people are watching. All the big cable channels are already part of a streaming umbrella or offer some form of their own.

Now, I can see a scenario where independent studios develop shows and try shipping them to various streaming services to get picked up, which does happen to some degree even now. In a way, that is a form a syndication if you choose to look at it that way. I do believe those days of campy genre-specific shows that have that 'syndicated' feel may be behind us.

Syndication, may in fact, really be dead.

Has anyone besides me seen Adam-12? I like Law and Order.

What do you think of the future of sports on television? As a Yankee fan, I've grown accustomed to watching game on the Yes Channel (Yankee Entertainment and Sports). The catch is now there are certain games on Apple or Amazon Prime. The MLB app doesn't always carry the game you want to see.

They also show baseball on Peacock so it’s starting to go there too which I don’t mind.

Trekapedia wrote:They also show baseball on Peacock so it’s starting to go there too which I don’t mind.

It's harder for me to deal with this because watching baseball on TV has been a family thing for a long time. We don't have wifi, and I only get Internet from a computer hooked into a modem.

Not being able to watch baseball on TV makes it hard to get family time. Maybe most people don't do this, but it works for us.

Syndicated Television is a thing of the past…. Everyone has their own streaming apps / sites.
All the shows and movies for every production company…..no one has the Patience to sit through commercials to watch television shows anymore.

I miss themed programming

TBS Dinner and a Movie
USA Up all Night

jasn88cubs wrote:I miss themed programming

TBS Dinner and a Movie
USA Up all Night

Same here. For me it was USA Up All Night, MonsterVision with Joe Bob Briggs and SNICK. Once SNICK was over for the night, I was bummed out but I’d turn on MonsterVision with Joe Bob Briggs and watch that for awhile.

ThePunisher wrote:It's harder for me to deal with this because watching baseball on TV has been a family thing for a long time. We don't have wifi, and I only get Internet from a computer hooked into a modem.

Not being able to watch baseball on TV makes it hard to get family time. Maybe most people don't do this, but it works for us.

I second the value of family time.

Interesting!!!

It’s funny how SNICK would generally end for the night with Are You Afraid Of The Dark? most weeks and then MonsterVision would be on either during SNICK or right after. So you end with a scary show and then you watch mostly horror movies after. Nice way to spend a Saturday night.

Best show ever in syndication (with new episodes/seasons) was Mama's Family.

As far as sports....

I think the future of sports in general is bleak. Ratings down in many of them, they' don't have the same level of cultural impact like they did in previous decades, and for some ungodly reason....they decided to bring politics into the mix. Sports used to be escapism...now it's a continuation of the hyper-partisan culture we find ourselves in as we do a speed run into a big tech dystopia.

Couple months ago I checked out ESPN for the first time in a couple years and it was like watching the talking heads on CNN. Unreal. I immediately turned it off.

Yeah it feels like those announcers need to use the game for their own political views. It’s getting disgusting I agree. Just comment on the game and don’t bring that stuff into it is how I feel.

We used to have a syndicated show here locally called The Very Bad Movie. They showed bad movies and one night, they got in trouble apparently for showing George A. Romero’s Night of The Living Dead since it wasn’t a bad movie lol. I actually was friends with the host of the show and she was really nice. She said she had a blast with it but unfortunately, since the station went into a comedy zone where all they would do is show sitcoms, shows like hers and the original Star Trek were shown the door sadly. It was the former UPN station that turned into MyNetworkTV once UPN and The WB merged. So yeah, syndication here has been falling apart ever since. They also aired Elvira’s Movie Macabre but just like The Very Bad Movie, it got kicked off the network.