robin2099

So I watched an episode of Saf3 recently. For those who don't know what it is, it's a new first run syndication TV series from one of the producers of Baywatch and starring Dolph Lundgren. And wow, it's amazing how cheaply done it is and even how difficult it even is to find.

Back in the 90's it seemed like syndicated TV series were everywhere and accessible on just about any station. You had three of the most popular shows in the world in Baywatch, Hercules, and Xena. You had the different versions of Star Trek, you had all the shows that popped up to capitalize on Herc and Xena's success. Then you had shows like Night Man, and Highlander, Mortal Kombat, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and Forever Knight.

Even going into the 2000's their were still several shows going. You had Mutant X, and Andromeda, Relic Hunter, Jack of all trades, and Cleopatra 2025.

Then about midway through the 2000's they just vanished. Since then the only two series to air this way were the excellent Legend of the Seeker(which was gone too soon IMO), and Saf3.

Which makes me wonder what happened that killed the first run syndicated TV series?

chowderhead

most of these shows have moved to prime time and cable where they can command more money and ratings. If you are looking for fantasy or sci-fi there are tons of those on primetime as well from the cable channels. The day time or off hours can be filled with network syndicated shows, reruns of their prime time shows, or commercials.

RichC2

They got replaced by The Chew, The Talk, The Doctors, etc; Plus with deals like Anger Management (10/90 orders) there's no need for it.

PhantomStranger

Syndication is alive and well for certain genres like talk shows and daily "reality" programs like Jerry Springer. It's much easier these days to find a low-budget cable channel as a home for new entertainment programs. Syndication is a risky business and while the rewards are great if a show is a big hit, it's also an easy way to lose millions of dollars.

thelwig14

As a Dolph fan I died inside a little after the 20 minutes of Saf3 I could stomach.

Red Dog

Cablenets.

Alan Smithee

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whotony

There's a show called Saf3?

DJariya

Apparently yes

whotony

I thought it was short for something.

Short Angry Folks 3?

Manco

Don't forget Earth:Final Conflict.

rw2516

and Babylon 5
Tales From The Darkside
Monsters
Airwolf
War Of The Worlds
Friday The 13th
RoboCop

Original Desmond

saf3 is a terrible show in any form

Shannon Nutt

There's just a ton of networks now, all with schedules to fill - I think that's the main reason we don't see a lot of first-run syndication anymore.

majorjoe23

Why is there a woman in a swimsuit with the group?

Lastdaysofrain

Local markets lost a lot of power in the 90s when most independent stations became CWs and WBs and UPNs. Those were almost always the stations that ran the first run syndication shows, once they became "networks" they had their own programming.

Jay G.

This. The creation of both the UPN and WB networks grabbed up a lot of independent stations that became affiliates, meaning a lot less air time available for syndicated shows, especially in prime-time. Also, the addition of those networks meant that most major TV studios now had an affiliated network to produce content for, reducing the amount of syndicated shows they produced.

Star Trek is a good example of this. Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine were both syndicated shows, but Star Trek: Voyager premiered on UPN, as did Star Trek: Enterprise.

Even when the UPN and WB merged into the CW, the leftover stations ended up combining into the new, smaller network MyNetwork:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Un...TV_realignment

And by this time, cable channels had started creating original programming on par with what was previously syndicated. Syfy channel shows like Eureka & Warehouse 13 probably would've been at home on syndication in the 90s, although something like the Battlestar Galactica reboot was much darker than what would've been allowed on syndication. Likewise, USA has a lot of shows that would've likely been syndicated in the past: Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, etc. Even shows like NCIS that started on a major network now get moved to cable instead of moving to syndication for later seasons.

Kdogg

Where I lived the first run syndicated shows were on the network affiliates (CBS, NBC, ABC, etc) and WGN. WGN stopped running them years ago. The network affiliates switched to either cheaper programming or higher rated sports. I would bet that 1) sports are taking up much of the daytime slots and 2) cheap reruns in the evenings.

DJariya

Because the show is from the creator of Baywatch.

robin2099

Because the premise of the show is it's a coordinated group involving life guards, fire fighters, and the coast guard. I never finished the first episode though, and I'm a Dolph fan.

Lastdaysofrain

The short answer is that Charles in Charge got canceled. After that, what's the point?

Navinabob

Don't forget Andromeda!

Groucho

Is that Seal?

Dr. Mantle

Yes. He had to do something to forget the fact that he divorced Heidi Klum.

Ropes Pierre

i think the better question is why aren't the other women in swimsuits?

everyone knows female fire fighters fight fires in bathing suits (and sweaty tank t's/hot pants.)