Sometimes reruns can be a good thing

In my nightstand, next to the emergency remote control and the backup emergency remote control, is a journal of things I never thought I'd say.

It's called "Things I Never Thought I'd Say."

And in that journal -- just behind "Listen, Jaclyn Smith, I think we should just be friends" (I've been writing in it for a while) -- is this: "I wish there were more summer reruns."

It's a good thing that was written in erasable ink -- like I said, it's been a while -- because not only do I wish there were more summer reruns, TV needs more summer reruns.

One of the biggest "Lost" fanatics I know got hooked on the series by watching reruns two summers ago. But pity the 2 million viewers who never came back from this season's disastrous October-to-February break, one that was supposed to appease fans unhappy with in-season repeats. Any of them who heard about the jaw-dropping season finale and wanted to catch up in time for next season are out of luck.

Another friend fell behind on "Heroes" -- she forgot it had come back from one of its two "Lost"-style, rerun-free hiatuses -- and decided to put off watching it until this summer. She never got the chance.

Neither series, two of the most talked-about and valuable on TV, are on their networks' summer schedules, all but ensuring that their audiences won't grow next season.

And it's not just hit shows that are losing out on the exposure. NBC planned to use the summer to showcase "Friday Night Lights." But the network pulled those reruns after three weeks, citing low ratings. For the season, the series averaged fewer than 6 million viewers. The summer reruns were attracting more than 2 million viewers. If even half of the summer audience was made up of new viewers who, given the time to get sucked in to the feel-good drama would have followed it next season, that would have meant a nearly 20 percent ratings increase that would have taken the series off the endangered list.

But, no. More and more, the networks are sacrificing the long-term health of their franchises in favor of short-term gains with reality shows you'll quickly forget.

Next week, ABC will debut "Fat March," a series that -- and I can't even believe I'm writing this -- will make 12 overweight men and women walk from Boston to Washington, D.C. I don't know what it costs to convince a dozen fat people to hike 570 miles -- What's the going rate these days for cattle prods and a doughnut held just out of reach? -- but that money, and that airtime, could be put to much better use.

A lot of good could be done just by freeing up the budget for all the crack being smoked by whoever thought "Fat March" was a good idea in the first place.

And it really does all come down to money, because the networks are reeling from the collapse of the business model they've relied on for decades.

The fees they pay studios for the rights to each series are based on multiple airings. Networks traditionally make their money by selling commercials during those second -- and sometimes third -- broadcasts. Take away that revenue, then add the cost of producing and promoting all this "original" summer programming that's not doing all that much better than the reruns, and you're looking at a couple of looming crises.

I've seen the future -- in the form of pilots for the new fall shows -- and it is grim. You can't tell me having more money to spend on development wouldn't result in a better crop of series.

And with profits down, the networks are taking a more-extreme-than-usual stance in their negotiations with the Writers Guild of America. Their contract expires Oct. 31, and both sides are bracing for a long and painful strike that could derail scripted TV for months.

All because reruns have been saddled with a worse reputation than Dina Lohan's parenting skills.

It's not all gloom and doom, though. In recent weeks, I've gotten reacquainted with The CW's "Supernatural," a victim of the toughest time slot on TV. CBS is giving its back-from-the-dead "Jericho" a Friday night platform. And viewers have been discovering the woefully underappreciated "30 Rock" on NBC and "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS.

And, sure, you can buy the DVDs of the series you're missing this summer. In many cases, you can watch the episodes online. But you shouldn't have to.

If viewers ever truly embrace that idea, studios could simply premiere all their shows that way. Before long, there wouldn't be any summer reruns at all, because there wouldn't be any networks left to air them.

That's another thing I never thought I'd say.

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Mondays. E-mail him at clawrence@reviewjournal.com.