What does it mean to have a television show in syndication?

Question

I was reading some King of Queens forums on TV.com, and it said the show went into syndication. The topic was about how long Doug & Carrie were married, saying that they sort of changed the amount of years around from 10-15 years at different times. What does it mean to put a show in syndication, and can you name some examples of syndication in The King of Queens?

Answer 1

It's the right to specifically re-broadcast a program, for commercial profit.

Examples of other shows in syndication: well, basically any show that can still sell air-time, whether it's a good show or not.

Answer 2

Reruns- and this is where shows really make some money being on everynight. Some older shows didnt have syndication deals so the actors and everyone else who worked to produce those shows dont get money for them being shown rerun.

Answer 3

With King of Queens, it means that is no longer aired on CBS, where you used to watch it, but that now you can get it on other channels, like UPN or CW.

Syndication means "the sale of the right to broadcast shows to multiple TV (or radio) stations, without going through a broadcast network, primarily to local stations."

The fact that they changed the length of their marriage around during the course of the show doesn't have anything to do with their being in syndication.

They also changed the fact that Carrie once did have a sister and that Spencer's mom was played by two different women.

Answer 4

I'm more familiar with this term in regards to journalism, but I believe syndication means the same in television as well.  Basically, a show usually starts on one media outlet, like FOX or CBS.  Whenever a show becomes syndicated, it literally means the show was sold to a syndicate (for sake of argument lets call the syndicate Yahoo Syndicate).  What will happen here is that other media outlets, such as MTV, ABC, Comedy Central, etc can now purchase the show from the syndicate, and it will be shared.  This happens whenever you see a show start popping up on several different channels.  They will all air a bunch of reruns but I believe it is still possible to have new episodes, perhaps on the original station it was broadcasted on (because they still own some rights to it maybe)  This has happened with Family Guy and Futurama, for example.

Answer 5

it means reruns.......or no new ones.

Answer 6

Syndicated shows aren't owned by the big networks, they're owned by a distribution company and local stations buy the rights to show the TV shows.  Talk shows are also syndicated.

In some areas The King of Queens reruns are in syndication - they might be on FOX, the CW, or the MY station - depending on your city... it just depends on which local affiliate bought the rights to air it.

Another example of a syndicated show would be Oprah, which is on ABC in some cities like New York and Los Angeles, on CBS in others like Tampa, and on NBC in other markets.