Why Must TV Schedulers Play Hide And Seek With Their Daytime Reruns?!

There is always the danger, when one works from home, that the overwhelming freedom will lead to a slackening of one's work ethic. Without oversight, the hours can slip away, and before you know it, you're both these guys. And that lady.

It might sound crazy, but one thing that has always helped give structure to my days working from home has been the daytime syndication schedule -- the shows I know well and can have on in the background, like the radio. There are the shows that ease you into the day, whether really old sitcoms or breakfast television. There are the shows that take you into your lunch break. And then, the late afternoon shows that wind you down into dinnertime TV and, from there, to primetime. Or, at least, that used to be the case. Now, it seems like the cable networks with the most appealing mix of old series shuffle them up with no regard for the home-worker's tenuous grasp on anything like a timetable.

I am not a crackpot. I just think cable networks need to quit messing around with weekdays' daytime scheduling.

When I first transitioned from my office job, back in the late '90s, it truly was a golden TV age for at-home workers. For years, A&E did all of us a solid with a rock block that has yet to be topped: two NewsRadios back to back starting at noon; a Law & Order; and a Northern Exposure. From there, you only had an hour to kill until the late-afternoon talk shows, which you could fill with any number of judge shows or half-hour game shows. If you realized you were looking at Chris In The Morning and still hadn't accomplished anything of note, you knew you'd better get on the stick. And if you'd had a really kick-ass morning, you felt justified in adjourning to the couch for a double shot of Phil Hartman. Working from home, you might not have meetings in a boardroom, but a daily meeting with Lennie Briscoe was just as important in helping one to organize one's time.

The great thing about the current media landscape is that even very recent shows are everywhere in syndication, which is how I've seen every episode of 30 Rock fifty times, and how I've re-enjoyed the full run of Parks & Recreation over the course of about a month. In addition, slightly older shows that haven't made it to streaming services still get play: FXX launched last fall showing Mad About You, in order, for two hours each morning, and WeTV played three hours of Will & Grace starting at 2 PM PT, just in time for me to end my east coast work hours and work on posts for tomorrow. And when three different cable networks -- We, Sundance, and the Chicago-based superstation WGN -- all started trumpeting their acquisition of Law & Order, which they'd start airing on New Year's Day, I thought the beautiful dream of every home-worker had finally come true: between the three of them, might I be able to cobble together 24 hours of Logan, every day?!

At first, I almost could. WGN's started (for me) at 8 AM; then We took over at 1 PM, somewhat softening the blow that came when it moved its Will & Grace reruns and shortened the block by an hour. We's L&Os carried me to late afternoon, when Hallmark would air a couple of episodes of The Good Wife. And then primetime would have started on the east coast and I could start checking in on my new cable shows. It was perfect.

And then, one by one, all the cable networks started jerking me around. First, Hallmark dropped The Good Wife, teasing me by putting it on the digital guide a week in the future and then airing The Waltons instead. Then WGN moved its morning Law & Orders. My Will & Grace hopped to 10 AM PT for a three-hour rock block...until it got moved to a six-hour binge-a-thon on Monday mornings only. And as much as We's all-day-and-into-the-night Law & Order binge-a-thons make Tuesdays and Wednesdays the best days of the working week, they really just highlight what a ripoff it is when Thursday comes and I'm supposed to make do with CSI Miami. Maybe I could fill with SVU on USA, but half the time when I go look at the schedule on that channel, it'll be NCIS instead! WHAT AM I, A HUNDRED?!

I'm sure these programming decisions are made based on iron-clad ratings evidence -- that it's better to lock in a viewer for many hours straight than just get her for one or two hours at a time before she jumps to another channel. But some of us are trying to structure our time without getting slowed down having to consult the digital guide all the time. The cable networks literally have no more loyal viewer than me, and they should have some consideration for my convenience. I AM NOT A CRACKPOT.