This articlemay beconfusing or unclear to readers. In particular, it seems like this article is referring to a solid column on an hour-by-week chart that would be formed by running a show at (6:00) M-F, Sun-Sat, etc. Jeopardy, like the local news, would appear that way, but is specifically excluded in the first statement of the overview which mentions it. Please helpclarify the article. There might be a discussion about this onthe talk page.(May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Strip programming orstripping is a technique used forschedulingtelevision andradioprogramming to ensure consistency and coherency.Television orradio programs of a particular style (such as atelevision series) are given a regular daily time slot during the week, so that it appears as a strip straight across the weekly schedule. For example, radio and televisionbroadcasters may program anews program atrush hours every day, or at least every weekday.

Strip programming is used to deliver consistent content to targeted audiences. Broadcasters know or predict the times at which certaindemographics will be listening to or watching their programs and play them at that time. Most televisiondayparts outside ofprime time use strip programming five days a week (with some selected programs also being stripped on one or both days of the weekend), with the same programs being broadcast every day at the same time to target specific demographics. Strip programming is sometimes criticized as making programming too predictable, and reducing diversity and uniqueness.

Strip scheduling often applies to any program that airs on multiple consecutive days during the calendar week (most commonly Monday through Friday), whether carried through atelevision network (such as with atalk show,variety show, news program,soap opera, ortelenovela) or insyndication. It is commonly restricted to describing the airing oftelevision programs that were originally broadcast on a weekly basis during their original run:The West Wing could be stripped but notJeopardy!, asJeopardy! was originally intended to be run daily. It can also refer to shows in prime time that run daily, such as with the short-livedThe Jay Leno Show in 2009 and 2010.^[1]

For much of the 1960s and into the early 1990s, stripping for syndication was one of, if not the primary profit component of the studio production model in American television. A show became far more profitable if it succeeded in getting three full U.S. seasons (about 75episodes) or more, as then it was possible to strip it for fifteen weeks (15×5=75) before needing to repeat episodes. Once a series attained five seasons (which would push the show over the100 episodes threshold), it would be a full six months before it would repeat. ForStar Trek, in particular, this was relevant. Only due to an unprecedented letter-writing campaign was the show renewed for its third season, and it did not begin to attain wider popularity until appearing in syndication for a number of years. If it had failed to be renewed for a third season, it would not have been syndicated, and its subsequent popularity and influence would likely not have occurred. Many other shows with lukewarm response in their initial runs became widely appreciated cult favorites as a result of syndication, or helped keep cultural memes associated with them far more widely known than if the shows had only been viewable during their initial time frame.

Michael Grade was responsible for introducingstripped and stranded schedules to theBBC's television service in theUnited Kingdom in his role as controller ofBBC1: from February 18, 1985, onward,^{[citation needed]} the weekday evening schedule has consisted almost entirely of half-hour or hour-long programs starting on the hour, or half-hour (the BBC channels never carried spot advertising). For example, Grade's new schedule provided at 19:00, the talk showWogan thrice weekly and two episodes ofEastEnders and fixed the national news at 18:00 and 21:00, and regional news at 18:30. Before this date, programs might start at almost any time and programs could have different times on consecutive weeks or even days, for example:^[2]

Compare with a 2007 schedule for the same channel:

Stripping has also become an even more common practice on manyBritish channels since the introduction of multi-channelcable andsatellite television in the 1990s.

In many other countries, new episodes of various series are aired every weekday. For example, if such a station gets the most recent season of a television series originating from theUnited States, the episodes will air in this way for two or three weeks, after which they are replaced by another show in the same timeslot.

In Australia,Network Ten and its sister stationEleven have strippedThe Simpsons for many years, airing the show daily at 6:00 p.m., which is traditionally the news hour on rivalsSeven Network andNine Network. Despite some attempts to fill this slot with original programming,The Simpsons stripped at 6:00 p.m. remained a mainstay of Australian television, only ending whenCBS Corporation took control of Ten and Eleven in 2017 and ended their output deal with20th Century Fox Television;7mate now carries it in various timeslots.

In the Philippines,Kapamilya Channel,A2Z,ALLTV andGMA Network are consistently airingIt's Showtime on the same hours, at 12:00 p.m. until at 2:30 p.m., every Monday to Saturday.^[3][4][5][6]

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• Television syndication
• Radio broadcasting

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