The proliferation of reality crap has certainly made a dent in the syndication market: I'm pretty sure it must be cheaper for a network to finance thirteen episodes of something like Wipeout than to buy syndi rights for a popular scripted show.

At the same time, though, there are *so many* cable channels, and most of them rely on syndicated series to fill their slates. And shows like the L&Os and CSIs are as ubiquitous as they are in part because they're excellent filler.

I'm sure the availability of TV series on DVD plays a role, too--although I think an argument could be made that, when it comes to selling older series on DVD, the nostalgia factor will only generate a certain percentage of purchases: airing older series in syndi has the potential to expand the DVD-buying audience for any given show, because the odds are greater that someone who, say, might not've been born at the time of the original broadcast can discover the show. But something tells me the DVD/syndi balance, like the streaming-online/initial-broadcast balance, might be one of those things networks have yet to figure out in the new TV landscape.

So...yeah. *g* Obviously, there's stuff to think about on this score!