Why did CBS stay away from game shows from 1968 to 1972?
Three words: economics and Fred Silverman. Economics because from the time CBS first purchased the rerun rights to I Love Lucy in 1959 at a bargain price (largely because Desi Arnaz or no one else in television yet recognized the value of repeats), sitcoms which drew good ratings in repeat runs were far more profitable than game shows in the morning. Over the years, CBS bought up rerun rights to many of its most successful comedies with the idea of running them for five to seven years (if they drew good audiences) in daytime and then selling them to local stations through its CBS Films subsidiary after the network run. In 1971, the networks were forced by the Justice Department to sell their syndication companies (CBS Films was sold to Viacom—which now owns CBS, talk about full circle). Very few of the sitcoms were not strong performers in the morning. CBS even spirited away The Real McCoys and My Three Sons away from ABC in no small part because of the rerun packages. The McCoys had
