Why aren't the Simpsons on cable?

[jsu5381m]

With a lot of comedy shows in syndication also being re-run on cable, such as King of The Hill on FX, Family Guy on TBS, and George Lopez on Nick at Night, how come old reruns of the Simpsons have not made it onto any of the cable channels?

 

[Braves2005]

I know that FX used to carry reruns of The Simpsons for a couple of years around the time they started carrying reruns of FOX shows like Married With Children, King of the Hill, and Ally McBeal.

I wish that Nick at Nite could at least carry the early years of The Simpsons (late 1989 through around 1997 or so before they started recycling episodes for first run) that syndication now skips for the later years (1997 through 2007)

I personally wish that Nick at Nite would show Married With Children, a show that is rarely if at all seen in syndication.

 

[BRNout]

With a lot of comedy shows in syndication also being re-run on cable, such as King of The Hill on FX, Family Guy on TBS, and George Lopez on Nick at Night, how come old reruns of the Simpsons have not made it onto any of the cable channels?

It has to do with the syndication agreements. The owners of the franchise have contracts with Fox Corporate to air the show on all Fox O&Os and they, in turn, syndicate it out to other broadcasters. Frankly, it's still significantly more lucrative for the show to be aired on broadcast TV than on cable. In some markets, The Simpsons actually beats one or two of the local newscasts! It's still a very popular show and plays well during the early evening and makes a good counter to the late local news too.

That's why FG jumped into syndication with broadcasters as well as with TBS/Adult Swim. Theirs is a special arrangement that was negotiated long after the Simpsons syndication contract was penned. And, the Simpsons gets exclusivity on its respective broadcast homes - which is good for Fox. You don't dilute the ratings that way. Look at FG - on many weeknights in our area it plays at 7:30 on WPHL, at 8, 8:30, 9, and 9:30 on TBS, at 11:00 on WPHL and Adult Swim and at 11:30 on Adult Swim. That's a lot of exposure (8 episodes in one night) and it's not good for the local station (WPHL) which does not have exclusivity when they're showing it at 11. In other words, if I don't care for the episode that WPHL has on at 11 - I can flip to CN to see Adult Swim's episode.

Better for the local stations to have exclusive rights as they do with the Simpsons. Fox was smart in that regard.

 

[BlueWanderer]

In my opinion, watching Family Guy on adult swim is the best version since there's no pop-ups and very little edits (mostly edits of the s and f-words) compare to the other channels' versions.

I suppose it would be nice if The Simpsons (mainly the first ten seasons) was carried out on cable, but I have the dvds so I'm not so worry about it. But for the people who don't have the dvds, I would recommended it being on adult swim. That way it would get the respect it deserves in terms of no pop-ups and actually seeing the ending credits in full frame. Of course, there's always the possibility of adult swim throwing that policy out the window and copying the other networks' bad habits.

 

[BRNout]

Agreed about watching FG on Adult Swim! You avoid the annoying TBS pop-up ads and clipped scenes. It's tough to watch anything on TBS anymore. And, the syndicated version on local broadcast TV is edited for content. That's annoying too - at least for the purist.

 

[Garrett]

In some markets, The Simpsons actually beats one or two of the local newscasts! It's still a very popular show and plays well during the early evening and makes a good counter to the late local news too.

This is off topic a little, but wouldn't you hate to be employed on the newscast that lost to the Simpsons?

 

[Nate Wesley]

In some markets, The Simpsons actually beats one or two of the local newscasts! It's still a very popular show and plays well during the early evening and makes a good counter to the late local news too.

This is off topic a little, but wouldn't you hate to be employed on the newscast that lost to the Simpsons?

Off Topic, a little more: News on WIAT CBS 42 (Birmingham) were once regularly bested by reruns of Andy Griffith on WB/CW affilate WTTO 21.

 

[BRNout]

In some markets, The Simpsons actually beats one or two of the local newscasts! It's still a very popular show and plays well during the early evening and makes a good counter to the late local news too.

This is off topic a little, but wouldn't you hate to be employed on the newscast that lost to the Simpsons?

IIRC (and I think I do), KCBS-2 in LA is an example of this. By quite a bit. And WCBS-2 in NY may be too...or at least was. And that club is not all that small. The Simpsons score some pretty good ratings. In fact, when coupled with Seinfeld, the show can be quite formidable. Given that local news broadcasts (and their audiences) are spread all over the schedule these days, it's not all that hard to beat out a couple of them with strong syndicated programming.

The real embarrassment is to lose out at 11, which I think the aforementioned CBS stations have done at one time or another.

 

[EnbyCee]

In some markets, The Simpsons actually beats one or two of the local newscasts! It's still a very popular show and plays well during the early evening and makes a good counter to the late local news too.

This is off topic a little, but wouldn't you hate to be employed on the newscast that lost to the Simpsons?

IIRC (and I think I do), KCBS-2 in LA is an example of this. By quite a bit. And WCBS-2 in NY may be too...or at least was. And that club is not all that small. The Simpsons score some pretty good ratings. In fact, when coupled with Seinfeld, the show can be quite formidable. Given that local news broadcasts (and their audiences) are spread all over the schedule these days, it's not all that hard to beat out a couple of them with strong syndicated programming.

The real embarrassment is to lose out at 11, which I think the aforementioned CBS stations have done at one time or another.

A few years ago, WBBM in Chicago was getting pummeled at 10 both by rival newscasts on WLS and WMAQ, but also Simpsons reruns on WFLD and Friends reruns on WGN.

 

[Iowan]

Wait a minute, I don't remember The Simpsons being on FX! I don't remember them being on cable at all! Are you sure you're not thinking about FOXNet?

 

[nickelodeonfan97]

I think I remember hearing somewhere that FOX gave Cartoon Network a choice between rights to The Simpsons or rights to Futurama and they chose Futurama. It may not be true though.

 

[DJ Tony]

Personally, I think that The Simpsons are way better off being in cable than syndication because in cable, I think you can get away with more stuff then you do syndication, for example "Family Guy", FG, is in Adult Swim and TBS and they show more stuff than what they show in syndication, they show FG here in Miami on the local CW Network at 6:30 and then again at 11:00 PM

 

[MarcB]

They are only showing certain episodes of FG that are airing on local stations. I must've seen that one where Brian peed on the floor at Stop & Shop at least a dozen times on my local station FOX 61 and the out of market CW11. (By the way Stop and Shop is a real supermarket chain and yes they do have locations is Rhode Island. Check out http://www.stopandshop.com/) At least on TBS and Adult Swim, they show a wide variety of episodes.

 

[KML0224]

Yes Marc! The references to all things New England is one of the two things that hooked me onto this show to begin with! (I think Stewie was the other factor.) As for The Simpsons, I seem to remember an episode where either Bart or the family "...won an all-expenses paid trip to HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT!"

 

[Braves2005]

I think that the syndication of Family Guy is out of whack because they seem to show the episodes out of order, ditto with The Simpsons, I don't know if they air King Of The Hill out of order or not. I don't think that they ever have aired any episodes from last season (2006-2007) on local TV. On TBS, I got to see the episode "No Meals On Wheels" where the Griffins buy a restaurant and then the funny part where Peter and Lois watch the Maude theme and the theme is longer with the additions of Cleopatra, Indira Gandhi, Pocahontas, Madame Curie, etc.

 

[DToTheJ]

They are only showing certain episodes of FG that are airing on local stations. I must've seen that one where Brian peed on the floor at Stop & Shop at least a dozen times on my local station FOX 61 and the out of market CW11.

"Jeez, Brian, where do you think you are, Payless?"

And here's a fun fact: the original establishment in the above quote was supposed to be K-Mart, but it changed because, if I recall correctly, they were an advertiser of the show.

 

[MarcB]

"Jeez, Brian, where do you think you are, Payless?"

There's a reason they're called Payless. A friend of mine bought a pair of sneakers for $10. He put them on. And they fell apart as he walked form one end of the mall to the other. I swear I speak the truth.

And from the What the heck were they thinking? catergory:

The supermarket I mostly recently worked for sub-leased a small part of their store to Payless when the store first opened in '04. Yes, a shoe store inside a supermarket. Well that didn't even last year. It was then leased to a candle store and the supermarket started selling their own candles there. Today the space is a Training Room/Storage Room for the supermarket.

 

[radiolives]

If The Simpsons did come to cable Spike TV would be perfect for it.

 

[DJ Tony]

If The Simpsons did come to cable Spike TV would be perfect for it.

How can they be perfect?, I don't think that a show like that would fit in that network.

 

[MarcB]

How can they be perfect?, I don't think that a show like that would fit in that network.

The guy from Sitcoms Online suggested that SPIKE TV would be good for The Simpsons too. Read the entire blog in my post about SPIKE TV getting Married With Children and Unsolved Mysteries.