Category: television

When was the last time you heard a person use the word "rerun"?  You know, the TV shows that are run more than once?  That is what I thought.  I, myself have not heard or used that word in ages...why?

Are they no longer around?  Of course not.  Networks and cable programming alike are so ruled by ratings and scared to part with a dime that they are typically only making six episodes of a new series instead of 24 like they used to.  So that is what is on far more often than anything first run.  It works for them to have a six-episode season too.  Then they can squeeze three to five "seasons" in a calendar year and advertise how many episodes are left before the "season finale".  Ooooh...how exciting.  A minuscule story arc is coming to an end!

Where was I?

The reason the word is no longer in use is because we have been trained not to utter it or even think it.  It has a negative connotation that is unseemly to advertising execs, so they have invented new words to replace it. Sound extreme?  Let me ask you, then.  What are syndicated television programs?  It's meaning has nothing to do with a rerun, but in practice they are one in the same.  Syndicated television programs are those that are broadcast to local stations directly, and not via a network.  It is a word that deals entirely with who gets paid money to put it on the air, and the public really has no reason to bother with it.  But advertisements have been using the word in place of "rerun" to alter our perception of the program itself.  It's not the eleventh time this rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond has been broadcast at 7 PM, it is a syndicated show.  I know it because the billboards are everywhere telling me as much.

But the one that puts the icing on the cake is the "encore performance".  An encore is a request for an additional performance.  It can also mean the additional performance itself as the result of such a request.  Television stations apparently have an information capability similar to Santa Claus.  They have been able to hear the one person on earth who actually requested to see a rerun every time their big money shows end.  And then they manage to actually get it on the air right then and there.  That's amazing!  Or perhaps the station intended to run it twice to increase advertising revenue.  The execs needed to avoid the word "rerun" so they purloined the definition of "encore".

To research this piece I looked up "encore" on dictionary.com and to my jaw-dropping amazement, I saw this definition amongst the real ones:

any repeated or additional performance or appearance, as a rerun of a telecast or a rematch in sports.

Then I grabbed a paper dictionary from 1991 and found that particular definition missing. I'm telling you, the scoundrels are stealing words.