Under the pact, BET will begin airing seasons one and two of the Kerry Washington political-fixer drama this summer. Additionally, original episodes from the upcoming third season of the Shonda Rhimes series
will air no sooner than eight days after original first-run episodes
are broadcast on ABC. The deal for off-network repeats extends to
additional seasons of the drama if it should continue its run (likely).
BET will debut the first two seasons of
the ABC Studios drama with a marathon starting in August, continuing to
air episodes up until the third-season premiere on ABC in the fall (a
formal third-season premiere date has not been announced yet). The
agreement extends season-one Scandal episodes to BET in addition to Netflix, where they’ve been streaming since debuting in
September 2012. It marks the first time season two will air outside of
ABC and ABC.com. Financial terms of the deal were not
immediately available.
The early sale comes as studios continue to enter the syndication market early (Scandal has
produced a total of 29 episodes in its two seasons) in a bid to
generate instant revenue rather than waiting for the typical 100-episode
mark to explore off-network sales. For their part, USA Network acquired rights to ABC’s Modern Family during its first season in January 2010, while Oxygen picked up Glee during its freshman run. Both series will begin airing in syndication later this year.
The time frame for fall repeats of original episodes of Scandal is unclear, but the deal is reminiscent of CBS’ pact with Amazon to stream Under the Dome episodes four days aftertheir Monday broadcasts.
The move will likely help ABC broaden the serialized drama’s audience
among its core demographic, though Rhimes has been vocal about the
series not specifically being a show catering to African-Americans. The
series, about a fixer with professional and personal ties to the
president of the United States (Tony Goldwyn), ranks as the No. 1 broadcast series among African-Americans, averaging 2.8 million viewers a week.
FlyGossip Guy
THE SHADE IS REAL
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