After an illuminating conversation with my mother about how ITV2 come to choose which episodes of Judge Judy should be shown on any given day, it made me wonder how exactly broadcasters pick which obscure episode of a long-running series (generally syndicated US imports) to schedule. Simply stripping shows from beginning to end in chronological order would at least make sense for most digital channels where I imagine having scope to be very lazy about scheduling barely-watched shows is attractive.
I think the bit that doesn't sit right with me is that short of ITV2's playout being the result of a random() function, I just can't imagine why anyone would want to bother make conscious decisions about what makes one episode of Judge Judy more worthy for any given day than any other.
Is anyone able to shed any light on the factors that tend to weigh in all this?
Is it possible that some syndicated programmes are repeated in production order rather than original transmission order? There can be many reasons why programmes are delayed for original transmission, such as a sensitive topical subject, but that would not necessarily be the case when shown in another country or many years later.
Similarly, there may be reasons why the new broadcaster may wish to withhold a programme for topical reasons, but then be left with a set of random episodes which need to be broadcast before the rights expire.
Yep - and some editions of a show will not transfer to a different country as well as others, as they may be about less relevant subjects, or feature interviews with people less famous in other countries etc.
If you aren't committed to showing every single episode, and can have some flexibility, you may chose to show a smaller selection of the series and repeat those episodes.
In this particular instance, it couldn't be suggested that there's an editorial decision not to show anything past 2001; just a financial one.
To put this in a frame of reference, I happen to love Judge Judy, and I stay up to date via YouTube.
The earlier series cost less to run than the later ones, and ITV2 know it will hold its audience whether they've seen it already or not. They play 6 episodes a day, 3 in the morning and repeated at teatime. At a cost per hour it must surely be one of their better properties, and yet they're grinding their limited catalogue to a point where people will reach Judy fatigue.
I told them this in an email to their duty office, for onward delivery to their head of programming, and heard not a sniff of a reply. Not even a generic "thanks for your email".
Some months ago there was an anomalous spurt of new episodes (perhaps 2003, when the title music changed). Maybe half a series worth - and then they were gone, and we returned to the old episodes again.
I'm not sure what to make of that, unless they're buying them with stamps from the Co-op.
:-(
A former member
Isnt there another channel that holds the later rights? Im sure I have seen them else where, on the sky platform
CBS Reality. They may, ultimately, go further than ITV2 - but they've started at the very beginning, so its too soon to say.
They do have nice little breakbumpers with Judy saying, "Court is in session tomorrow on CBS Reality", and they look to have been made this year, so I'm hopeful.
Just wish I would remember to tune in on the weekend for the omnibus - the channel is so far up the EPG I always forget about it.
Sorry for not reading the opening post more closely, but in answer to the randomisation of the episodes, I think it may actually *be* a bit random, as the same episode will pop round again too quickly. And I've seen one or two old episodes in their stack that is completely new to me.
