Repeat episodes are likely to be scattered throughout the week.
Bailouts erode market discipline, raising the likelihood of repeat episodes.
The original "NCIS" is the most successful program on USA — in repeat episodes.
It later began acquiring repeat episodes of network series and added some original programming.
But CBS could not cite another series that had several repeat episodes shelved because of advertiser resistance.
Mr. Burnett said he might invite guests like Julia Roberts to tape short introductions to repeat episodes that feature them.
And they said the decision about which repeat episodes to broadcast was so routine that it was made without being run past top executives like Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television.
In contrast, for the last two months, the same networks were buried in such programming as a television movie remake of "Picnic," events like the "American Comedy Awards" and repeat episodes of shows like "Two Guys and a Girl".
CBS confirmed that it had decided to substitute different repeat episodes of "Family Law," including one originally scheduled to run last Monday night at 10 p.m. Eastern time, because of Procter & Gamble's decision to withdraw commercials.
Though NBC led off the night with "Meet Mr. Mom," which drew only an estimated 4.05 million viewers, two repeat episodes of "Law & Order" (8.92 million, then 8.74 million) brought up its average.
In a synergistic experiment on Friday, CBS showed two repeat episodes of "Veronica Mars," starring Kristen Bell, below, providing its Viacom sibling UPN with a larger platform for the cult-favorite series.
