Reruns the main attraction for Saturday night viewing

Saturday night has become the great dumping ground for network television, and it has been particularly evident this fall.

“It’s like the Love Canal of TV,” says David Slaver, president of KSL Media company in New York. “No one wants to go near it.”

Since the new season started, the only new offerings have been episodes of Fox’s “Cops” and “America’s Most Wanted” and the CBS newsmagazine “48 Hours Mystery.” There isn’t a single new scripted show in prime time on Saturday. Reruns now dominate the lineups of ABC, NBC and CBS; Fox alone dedicates the night to fresh shows.

“It’s the last night networks think about when they are programming their schedules,” says David Poltrack, executive vice president of research and planning for CBS. “The competition from all the cable channels, from home video, DVDs and the fact that people go out have made it the least important night.”

But for any viewers who have missed two of the hottest new shows of the fall season, “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” – or for devoted fans of “The Apprentice,” “Survivor” and “Law & Order” – Saturday has become an important night, a time to catch up.

Throughout October, ABC has repeated “Lost,” allowing viewers to get up to speed on the story of castaways on a mysterious island. Tonight the network will air the movie “Monsters, Inc.,” but another two “Lost” episodes are scheduled for Nov. 6.

The strategy is paying off particularly well for “Desperate Housewives,” ABC’s blockbuster drama that airs original episodes Sunday nights, where last week it pulled in 21.5 million viewers. “Housewives”’ reruns on Saturdays at 10 p.m. have been relatively successful as well, drawing 7.1 million viewers – more than many original series on other nights.

But what’s more important to the network is that repeats of “Housewives” are up 33 percent in household ratings and 65 percent in adults aged 18 to 49 over last year’s Saturday evening staples, mostly movies and home-video shows. Reaching the coveted 18-to-49 set is a boon for ABC, a sell for advertisers who always are looking to reach that target audience.

“This is proving the point that people are home on Saturday night and willing to watch,” Slaver says.

Repeats of reality shows fare less well. Both “Apprentice” and “Survivor” reruns have been down in household ratings and in the adult demographics, Poltrack says.

The latest television buzzword in reruns is “repurposing.” It means rebroadcasting a show on another channel, particularly in partnerships between cable and broadcast – such as NBC did last year when it ran episodes of sister network Bravo’s hit “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”

Now NBC regularly airs episodes of “Law & Order” on its corporate cousin USA Network, even competing against its own “Law & Order: SVU” reruns at 10 on Saturdays. Tonight NBC is repeating two episodes of the Sci Fi Channel show “Scare Tactics,” tied to Halloween.

Saturday hasn’t always been a toss-away night for television. Many of the industry’s finest and most entertaining shows have aired on Saturday nights.

Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows,” “The Honeymooners,” “Get Smart,” “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Love Boat” all made their marks on Saturdays. In the mid-1970s, Saturdays ruled with “All in the Family,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “M*A*S*H,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Bob Newhart Show.”

Even into the 1980s and early ‘90s, NBC’s lineup was anchored by “The Golden Girls” and “Hunter,” and CBS did relatively well with “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

Just recently, CBS, which had planned to run new episodes of “The Amazing Race 6” on Saturdays, announced that it will premiere “Race” on a Tuesday, Nov. 16, instead. “Clubhouse,” a family drama about a single mom, a kid and baseball which premiered this fall on Tuesdays, is being moved to the Saturday slot starting Nov. 6 to quietly fade away.

Nonetheless, CBS’ Poltrack says Saturdays could return to their former glory.

“I personally still believe there is the potential to have a top 20 program on a Saturday night,” he says. “The odds are against it, because once a show has that kind of appeal, the tendency is to not run it there (and to move it to a weeknight).

“But I still think there is potential if you get the right show.”