October 22 is exactly one week before the November sweeps begin. Even in these times to local stations around the country the November sweeps is important because that's the time of year (usually!) when they stand to make the most in local advertising. Debmar-Mercury is one of the few old school syndicators left that actually care about that sort of stuff. That's why they added up to six runs per market too. Notice how many new daily syndicated shows were available to stations this year? Two?--Drew and Schitt's Creek? Something's gotta go on the air, and why not a win-win for stations already doing well with their first four runs while Debmar makes up any organic ratings downtick with more commercial runs? It's a business, folks, and they're doing it well!
