Fans of former Fox series “New York Undercover” won’t have to wait much longer to see old episodes. After a season of the show being off the air on stations and cable, syndicator Studios USA Domestic Television has licensed the first two seasons of the one-hour off-network drama to Onyx Media Group for weekly broadcasts during the 2002-03 season.
Under the agreement, Onyx will handle distribution and advertiser sales for the series from producer Dick Wolf. The show is being offered on a straight barter basis, with stations retaining seven minutes of local advertising time and Onyx selling the remaining seven minutes to national sponsors.
Last season, the series averaged a 1.0 household rating on only 127 stations.
“We are excited about reintroducing this proven television property to stations and advertisers looking to attract new customers from among the nation’s fast-growing and lucrative multicultural markets,” said Onyx CEO Mark Walton.
The series follows the personal and professional lives of a diverse ensemble of young detectives struggling to fight crime on the streets of New York City. The series received critical acclaim for its story lines and format during its four-season prime-time run on Fox from 1994-98, when it ranked as the network’s No. 1 show among African American viewers.
The show’s new distributors will use radio and the Internet to promote its return. It will target the African American fan base as well as the growing number of English-dominant and bilingual Hispanic television viewers. The program will carry an SAP (Secondary Audio Program) track in Spanish.