Television Gave Up

ProSieben and Sat.1 are just running the same three shows in heavy rotation now. The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, Two and a Half Men—the same episodes endlessly recycled like they’re the only programs on earth. I remember when this wasn’t true. Stromberg was on, Bullyparade, TV Total—German shows with something behind them, made for an actual audience. Now it’s just American syndication and reruns, the lowest-effort content possible filling every slot.

The obvious answer is money. It costs almost nothing to license an old American sitcom compared to producing anything original. Journalist Philipp Walulis looked into the economics once and it was exactly as grim as you’d expect: corporate ownership structures, licensing deals, the calculated decision to treat content as a commodity. Every repeat airing of The Big Bang Theory generates revenue. No risk. No cost. No thought.

What gets me is that the networks aren’t even pretending anymore. This is just the model now. Air cheap syndicated content, hit your quotas, keep the shareholders happy. You’re not really the audience—you’re just a metric they measure success by. The money changes hands long before anyone ever tunes in.