TV reruns and holidays

October 16, 2005 2:39 PM

Do the people who schedule TV episodes (specifically reruns) purposely pick episodes which coincide with holidays or recent events?

I've noticed that if its Columbus day then that night's Simpsons episode will have a reference to Columbus. This may not be the best example but I see a lot of this and am really curious to know if its just coincidence or TV schedulers having a little fun.

posted by skallas to media & arts (5 comments total)

Yes.
posted by Mr T at 2:50 PM on October 16, 2005

Yes, we do.
posted by TonyRobots at 2:51 PM on October 16, 2005

Yup, altho i've heard that some syndication deals don't include holiday episodes--it cuts into the amount of times they can be rerun--a Roseanne Halloween episode can't be run unless it's close to Halloween, while every other episode can run anytime at all.
posted by amberglow at 2:57 PM on October 16, 2005

They always run the Simpsons many Hallow'een episodes around now, so I say yes.
posted by wackybrit at 3:07 PM on October 16, 2005

Huh. I'm surprised that you'd suggest this is just TV schedulers having a little fun. Episodes are generally produced and edited with at least a tentative air-date in mind, and the holiday episodes are the ones whose lock dates aren't allowed to be pushed back.
posted by nobody at 9:36 AM on October 17, 2005