# Most Frequently Rerun TV Series
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 1, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736 "2008-03-01T14:53:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/24 "2014-08-27T14:43:08Z")
One thing that wasn’t true in 2008 is USA Network’s "All SVU All the Time " schedule. Seriously - it’s like the only program they run. Today’s (Aug 27) schedule is SVU continuously from 4:01 am until 10:00 pm, and in the 6 hours before 4:00 am when it starts all over, they have two Criminal Intents and \*another \*SVU in there.
In this modern era, when the goddam Weather Channel doesn’t even show weather anymore, how can one channel become so specialized?
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/25 "2014-08-27T14:43:31Z")
> [@iconservation](#):
>
> It can be safely stated that _I Love Lucy_ is the REASON the rerun exists! With the exception of _The Lone Ranger_, which reran shows in the summer of 1952, without much fanfare and much smaller ratings, _I Love Lucy_ created the rerun on [October 20, 1952](http://greghowelldesign.com/iconservation/the-rerun-is-born-october-20-1952/), out of necessity. Pregnant Lucille Ball couldn’t film enough shows for the entire season (39 episodes), so the producers decided to fill in the season with repeats from season 1. The 9 repeated shows got larger ratings than the first airing, and the concept of big ratings with reruns took root. _I Love Lucy_ has been rerun endlessly since then.
Watching ILL on DVD, one thing I thought was interesting–they didn’t just reshow the old episodes, but created a little intro/wrap scene to precede it to keep the show in continuity. Usually, Ricky and the Mertzes are sitting around talking about Lucy and the baby, then someone says “Oh, remember when Lucy did that wacky thing? It all started when…” and then they’d dissolve into the rerun. These intros are of course gone from the syndicated episodes, but are shown separately among the DVD bonus features.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/26 "2014-08-27T16:23:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Quoth **Chimera** :
>
> Gilligan’s Island was once a plague upon humanity, filling every niche in the schedule not filled by other programming.
Technically, this statement is true of any TV show.
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/27 "2014-08-27T20:03:17Z")
> [@iconservation](#):
>
> In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, there were very few syndicated shows available in color, so a lot of the shorter run shows with color episodes got heavy play for awhile, like Gilligan, My Favorite Martian, Star Trek, etc. got a second life it seems.
I don’t know if that can account for Gilligan, since that was in b&w for the first season. And unlike stuff like Bewitched\* and I Dream of Jeannie\*, it doesn’t ever appear to have had the color episodes syndicated without the b&w ones included.
\*- I grew up watching reruns of those on the local station and didn’t even realize they had b&w episodes until Nick At Nite started running them much later on.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/28 "2014-08-27T20:18:02Z")
> [@Chimera](#):
>
> **Gilligan’s Island** was once a plague upon humanity, filling every niche in the schedule not filled by other programming.
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Technically, this statement is true of any TV show.
Not the good ones!
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/29 "2014-08-27T22:27:40Z")
I’ve been working on a project that can provide a bit of a data point.
Since the summer of 1999 the TV show that has been shown the most times in reruns **on primetime network TV** is Law & Order: Special Victims Unit with about 550 reruns (I don’t have access to the file right now but that’s my memory) since it started in 2000.
So that’s a very, very specific case. it probably stands up pretty well for being very long running and regularly used by NBC to fill other holes in the schedule as shows get canceled. I suspect the original Law & Order would surpass it (the research that includes this information would eventually go back to 1985) as well as The Simpsons, but I think the pattern of reruns on TV from older eras of TV probably mean other long running shows will not have so many primetime network reruns.
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/30 "2014-08-28T00:40:15Z")
Whoops, was thinking of CSI with the 550 number.
From 6/15/99 through 8/15/14, the scripted shows with at least 300 rerun airings on primetime network TV are:
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - 699 rerun airings
The Simpsons
C.S.I.: - 524
Law & Order - 490
Law & Order: Criminal Intent - 381 (note, this counts the years where eps first ran on USA as reruns when shown on NBC)
NCIS - 377
Two and a Half Men - 368
Smallville - 368
Family Guy - 364
C.S.I.: Miami - 338
7th Heaven - 332
That '70s Show - 331
Reba - 322
Girlfriends - 307
Criminal Minds - 304
For SVU, that is nearly 50 reruns per year per season on air. Most of the others on that list are in the mid-30s.
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### Author:  [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/31 "2014-08-28T04:08:32Z")
According to a directory of prime time TV I own, a New York TV station reran every episode of “The Abbott and Costello Show” two hundred times(!) each. Since there were 52 episodes, that’s over ten thousand showings on just one TV station!
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/32 "2014-08-28T05:22:00Z")
> [@Charger](#):
>
> “The Simpsons” is on somewhere all the time. With as long as that show has been on, however, the number of times **each** episode has been shown is probably smaller than that of “Gilligan’s Island.” There were only 97 episodes of “Gilligan’s Island.” “The Simpsons” currently has more than four times that.
and in some markets you might get to watch Simpsons three times per day.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/33 "2014-08-28T05:29:24Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#):
>
> Whoops, was thinking of CSI with the 550 number.
>
> From 6/15/99 through 8/15/14, the scripted shows with at least 300 rerun airings on primetime network TV are:
>
> Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - 699 rerun airings
> The Simpsons
> C.S.I.: - 524
> Law & Order - 490
> Law & Order: Criminal Intent - 381 (note, this counts the years where eps first ran on USA as reruns when shown on NBC)
> NCIS - 377
> Two and a Half Men - 368
> Smallville - 368
> Family Guy - 364
> C.S.I.: Miami - 338
> 7th Heaven - 332
> That '70s Show - 331
> Reba - 322
> Girlfriends - 307
> Criminal Minds - 304
>
> For SVU, that is nearly 50 reruns per year per season on air. Most of the others on that list are in the mid-30s.
What would one of the series main actors in the above shows typically get as a residual from one airing of the their shows?
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 28, 2014, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-frequently-rerun-tv-series/439736/34 "2014-08-28T05:40:39Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> What would one of the series main actors in the above shows typically get as a residual from one airing of the their shows?
Never mind answers are here
> **[How much do TV actors get paid in royalties?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=307150)**
>
> Every year or two we hear about stars of the most popular sitcoms getting paid millions of dollars for every episode they are in. However, I have often wondered how much these actors get paid in royalties once the original episodes of their show are...
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