[clarification needed] This form of syndication more closely resembles the news agency model, where nominally competing networks share resources and rebroadcast each other's programs.
In addition to the Adventures of Superman, many other series were based on comic strips and aimed at the juvenile audience, including Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, and Joe Palooka.
Crusader Rabbit pioneered in the area of first-run animated series; followed by Bucky and Pepito, Colonel Bleep, Spunky and Tadpole, Q. T. Hush, and others.
In addition to regular series, syndicators also offered packages of feature films, cartoons, and short subjects originally made for movie theaters.
Game shows, often evening editions of network afternoon series, flourished, and a few odd items such as Wild Kingdom, canceled by NBC in 1971, had a continuing life as syndicated programming tailor-made for the early fringe.
The Universal/Paramount-produced package of original programming, Operation Prime Time, began appearing on ad hoc quasi-networks of (almost by necessity) non-network stations in the U.S. in 1978, with a mini-series adaptation of John Jakes' The Bastard.
Throughout the mid-to-late 1980s into the early 1990s, sitcoms continued to enter first-run syndication after being canceled by the networks, the most successful of which were Mama's Family and Charles in Charge.
Other sitcoms during this time to enter first-run syndication after network cancellation included Silver Spoons, Punky Brewster, Webster, It's a Living, Too Close for Comfort, 9 to 5, What's Happening!
Other sitcoms, such as Small Wonder, Out of This World, The Munsters Today, and Harry and the Hendersons (as well as more action-adventure oriented series like Superboy and My Secret Identity) enjoyed success in syndication throughout their entire run.
Studios found that reruns of one-hour dramas did not sell as well as sitcoms, so they were unable to fully recoup the shows' costs using the traditional deficit financing model.
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and its spin-off series Xena: Warrior Princess were also popular, often tying Deep Space Nine at 5% to 6% of the Nielsen-monitored audience.
As emerging networks WB and UPN signed contracts with formerly-independent stations, and the syndication market shrunk, Andromeda season 5 moved to the Syfy Channel (2004).
Entertainment Tonight began its long and continuing run as a "soft" news daily strip, with a number of imitations following (among which have included such entertainment news shows as TMZ on TV, Extra and ET's own spin-off The Insider); and "tabloid" television, in the wake of ABC's 20/20 and, more immediately, 20th Television's A Current Affair, would become a syndication staple with such series as Hard Copy and Real TV.
The popularity of syndicated talk shows fell dramatically in the mid-1990s as network and cable offerings expanded in the wake of Johnny Carson's retirement.
Since the now-defunct networks UPN and The WB began offering their affiliates additional nights of prime time programming in the late 1990s, there have been fewer first-run scripted series in syndication, at least, in the U.S.; much as with the closing of windows that provided opportunity for Ziv in the 1950s and various producers in the early 1970s.
[10] While the current version of The Price Is Right (another Goodson-Todman game show) has enjoyed tremendous success on the CBS daytime schedule since its inception in 1972 under hosts Bob Barker and Drew Carey, it has also produced three spinoffs, two of which failed after one season.
[11] New game show concepts (that is, not based on an existing or pre-existing format) are rarely tried and usually unsuccessful in syndication; somewhat of an exception to this was Street Smarts, which lasted from 2001 to 2006 (despite the series airing in late night slots in many markets).
Meanwhile, the popularity of some of the audience-participation talk shows continues to encourage new participants, some of whom, such as Morton Downey Jr. and Rosie O'Donnell, have brief periods of impressive ratings and influence; others, such as Oprah Winfrey and Maury Povich, have a sustained run.
A notable scheduling decision was made by KRON-TV in San Francisco: a 2000 dispute with NBC led to that station's disaffiliation from that network after 52 years, and since all the other larger networks were already represented in San Francisco, KRON decided to become one of the largest commercial independent stations by market size on the VHF band in the U.S., and soon tried running Dr. Phil, a popular new stripped series hosted by Winfrey-associate Dr. Phil McGraw, in primetime, with impressive ratings results.
The best known example of this is the original Star Trek series, which ran for three seasons on NBC from 1966 to 1969, gaining only modest ratings, but became a worldwide phenomenon after it entered off-network syndication.
In the case of the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, its syndication, particularly on TBS, is one of the reasons attributed for a rise in first-run ratings for its sixth season.
In recent years, there has been something of a trend toward showing two consecutive episodes of a program on Saturday and Sunday nights after prime time (generally following the local news).
The now defunct Continental Program Marketing was another of the syndicator-descendants (of the Northeastern, Southeastern, and Rocky Mountain educational networks, respectively) of the pre-PBS era.
Shortly after satellite networks such as RKO, Transtar, and SMN began, the Fairness Doctrine was repealed, which is credited with helping Rush Limbaugh become the first national talk radio superstar.
After the Democrats took control in the late 2000s, the gap between the two styles narrowed due to the mutual opposition of both camps to the government's actions, which allowed Jones greater clearance on stations.
One of the best-known internationally syndicated television series has been The Muppet Show, which was produced by Grade's British ITV franchise company ATV at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, and was shown around the world, including the United States, where it aired in syndication (including the owned-and-operated stations of CBS), and Canada, where CBC Television aired the show.
The 1970s was a time when many British comedies, including The Benny Hill Show and Monty Python's Flying Circus were syndicated to the United States and worldwide.
[34] Colombian, Brazilian, Mexican and Venezuelan telenovelas are programmed throughout the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking world, and in many parts of India, China and Europe, while Turkish television drama is broadcast in the Balkans, some other European countries, Western and Central Asia and North Africa.
Until the mid-1990s, television stations in Canada, like those in the U.S., were typically run as separate local operations, with a small number of moderately sized ownership groups such as Baton, Canwest, WIC, and CHUM.
There are three key reasons why a radio station will decide to pick up a syndicated show – the program is unique and has difficult to replicate content, has a decent ratings track record or offers a celebrity host.