TV critics have a big blind spot. We’re constantly focusing on the new stuff. That means, for starters, that people like me write a lot about shows when they premiere, then let them go as they stay on the air.
But it also means that we ignore something that it a huge part of ordinary people’s TV-watching experience: reruns. We all hate reruns, right? Except we don’t. Reruns, in syndication, make up a vast part of the TV schedule.
I don’t even have enough time to watch all the new TV I should, but I still catch a Simpsons or King of the hill rerun every now and then. What shows do you still watch in reruns? (Seinfeld? Law & Order? Sex and the City?) What show would you watch in reruns if only somebody would syndicate it? Or has the fact that everything’s now on DVD made reruns useless to you?
