Re: How I Met Your Mother - season 4
Syndication money is always in the equation, from the time a show starts filming. The studios generally pay more to produce each episode of a given series than they collect in license fees from the networks, so syndication is the only way they can break even and eventually make a profit. (Or at least it used to be the only way - DVD has changed that somewhat.)The rule of thumb used to be that you had to have at least 100 episodes in the can (a little over five seasons) to be viable, but now a lot of shows with 80-odd episodes seem to do OK, so the minimum target is four seasons. The studios basically can't make money on 3 seasons, so nobody in their right mind shoots for that - or believes a studio exec who says he or she is OK with that.
I have no problem with Barney and Robin because the pairing really does "work" for me. And on their behalf I hereby forgive you for comparing them to Joey and Rachel. (And for that matter, for comparing HIMYM to Friends.
)Regards,
Joe
