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‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ To Drop to Once a Week in the Fall

Jul 24, 2009  •  Post A Comment

The economy has done something that not even the Grim Reaper was able to accomplish: practically kill "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood."

Though host Fred Rogers died six years ago, the show has continued on, daily, in reruns.

However, PBS has told its member stations that reruns of the show will only be available once a week in the fall, not every day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

Daily reruns would be too expensive for PBS in this economic climate, Kevin Morrison, chief operating officer for Rogers’ Oakland-based Family Communications Inc., told the paper.

However, PBS has launched a freshened-up “Neighborhood” web site at PBSKids.org, which includes a section for fans to post their memories and photos of growing up with host Fred Rogers.

–Elizabeth Jensen

6 Comments

  1. So…wait…if I get this right, PBS is saying that it’s cheaper to produce a brand new program and air it 5 days a week than play a rerun in the same spot? Are you kidding me? This doesn’t sound like it has anything to with money. It screams, “He’s dead, it’s been six years, the show has run its course. Let’s just knock it down to one day a week get as much out of it as long as we can.”
    Sad, really.

  2. How can it possibly be less expensive for PBS to run something else four days a week?
    If this were commercial TV I’d expect infomercials, but what will PBS run instead?
    Family Communications, Inc. can’t really be charging that confiscatory a rate to strip the show, can they?
    Or is someone at PBS having an argument or contract fight with the folks at FCI?
    Either way, I certainly don’t buy the excuse given.

  3. It’s been on once-a-week only for at least two years on all three of our local PBS stations in the Philadelphia market.

  4. Really sad times for this country. Hard to believe it’s got anything to do with money.

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