SYNDICATED TV: IN SEARCH OF PRIME NUMBERS By ERIC SCHMUCKLE

Cable may continue to grab the headlines, but syndication's lure is becoming impossible to ignore. The studios that program the bulk of primetime on the

Simple. In syndication, programs are sold one by one, station by station, across the country. There is no dead wood. If a show doesn’t perform, it’s gone – and quickly. Last fall, no less a personage than Bill Crosby got only a four-month run with his version of You Bet Your Life before the ax fell.
Syndicators already have taken big chunks of daypart away from the networks.