TV’s Hidden Math: The Equations of Syndication

How the calculus of ’80s television programming lives on into the present day — and why the Disney Channel always seems to cancel shows after 65 episodes.

It’s often said about the current era of television that it’s an embarrassment of riches, one of the best eras of television of all time, in part because the floodgates have bumped up the quality quotient.

Netflix creates so much stuff (some great, much average) that we’re unaware of nearly all of it! It’s weird to think about, but both cable TV and local syndication had a similar effect on television in the ’80s. Suddenly, being on the network didn’t matter so much as having enough shows to fill out a year of programming.

Read on as I break down the math of the lower rungs of television.

1950

The year that The Cisco Kid first appeared on television. The show, filmed in color more than a decade before the practice was common on television, was one of the first successful shows to be syndicated. Its owner, Ziv Television Programs, was an offshoot of a radio syndicator who ran a similar model in the decades prior. Ziv, which shut down in 1962 after an acquisition by United Artists, was a major originator of…