I heard that generally a show has to have 100 episodes before it can get syndicated, is this true?

It seems a lot of the shows on USA don't have too many episodes like Working or the Naked Truth.

I believe that 100 is ideal. I don't know if that's a cold hard rule.

I've noticed that, too. But if you think about it, the shows that are widely syndicated (i.e. on many different channels) had long, 100+ episode runs. At least all that I can think of.

Shows like "Working" and "Jesse" are shown only on USA, to my knowledge.

So maybe therein lies the difference. To be widely syndicated a show needs 100 episodes. Exclusive rights don't have an episode limit. To be honest, though, I don't know.

Though this will sound like a rather negative remark, USA more than likely gets those shows because they are cheaper to get. Aside from their made for television movies, let's face it, USA is fairly standard "B" market fair. They could be running these titles not only due to the fact that during their short runs, they did have fans, but because they fill up air time.

that olson twin show (the newer one when they're teens) only has a few episodes and it's on fox family, there are many shows on usa in teh afternoon that I don't think ever came close to 100 eps

It used to be a lot truer than it is now. That's still the golden mark, after which the show producers can usually be assured of getting stinking rich off the syndication rights, but almost anything can be group-packaged and resold to some little channel these days...