NBC Universal is continuing to repurpose its cable and network content in order to beef up its post-strike schedule. Episodes of the USA Network shows Monk and Psych will be rebroadcast on NBC starting in March of next year. Six new episodes the popular series will premiere on USA starting Jan. 11, and then will be repeated over on NBC Sunday nights starting March 2.
NBC also may air older episodes from previous seasons of the shows. Because of the stand-alone nature of both shows, they can easily be broadcast out of order, as opposed to starting at the beginning of the season. This marks the second time Monk has gotten a network run: repeats of the series previously aired on ABC starting back in 2002.
Although the decision certainly seems like a response to the writers strike, NBC Entertainment Co-Chair Ben Silverman claims otherwise. “A lot of this we would be doing anyway,” he said. “The strike is pointing a flashlight on it.”
There was no mention yet of repurposing USA’s new hit Burn Notice, which averaged higher ratings last summer in the 18 to 49 demo than either Monk or Psych. Burn Notice is produced by Fox Television Studios (whereas Monk and Psych are produced in-house at Universal Media Studios) so a separate deal would have to be negotiated to bring the show to NBC.
It’s possible all this repurposing will open the door for other cable series to make the jump. Could Sci Fi’s Battlestar Galactica, which returns for its fourth season in March (and is also produced by Universal Media Studios), enjoy rebroadcast on NBC, finally bringing the high-quality show to the attention of a wider audience? Perhaps, if the strike lingers on and things get truly desperate, although it’s likely the heavily serialized nature of the series will work against it.
TV BACON 
I would love to hear more people’s thoughts on a) why these shows, more of which I watch than I do NBC’s primetime lineup, have been “ghettoized” off to USA and b) whether this move will work. Presumably, a show that is a hit on USA would not survive with the same ratings on NBC. Will these crossover, or fail? Are they the first group that is actually lucky the strike happened?
I suspect you’ll get some sampling, but don’t you get USA with basic cable? Which I suspect most folks who would watch these shows probably already get. So if they haven’t started watching them before, why would they now, other than there is nothing else on? The problem for the networks now is that I think people will be more inclined to turn to DVD rather than just watch whatever stuff they put on.
And I suspect that you’ve already given your own answer as to why these shows are on USA…they are more niche shows that wouldn’t garner enough audience to be considered financially feasible on regular networks.
This is interesting–do they have to be substantially less expensive to be financially viable on these netlets?
I remember when Monk was reran on ABC. It was very sad. Monk came in around No. 50-something in the Nielsens and was doing better than all normal ABC scripted programming (I think According to Jim was “slightly” higher).
I don’t really know how programming between sibling networks works, but I’m all for cable-to-air reruns (couple caveats of course). I do know Battlestar Galattica actually wasn’t doing well enough in the ratings to justify it’s pricetag, and moving to Sundays didn’t help. Going back even farther, the summer series TREMORS was apparently the highest rated show on Sci-Fi, but even that got the axe because it would burn through the money more than it would bring in. I stopped watching SG-1 a few years ago because it just got too painful/boring, but I guess it financially succeeded for the network and MGM.
Somebody needs to reair the Dresden Files. That was a ZERO budget series that actually had good acting and writing, but just didn’t gel with enough people before it was too late