'Real World' Providing First Test of Reality Reruns.

NEXT month, when MTV's "Real World" hits the air in syndication, television viewers will be able to relive the beginnings of one of the shows that pioneered the reality-based TV format.

The first reality show to be syndicated, "Real World" will be a trial to see whether the format can stand the test of time.

L.A.'s many reality TV producers will be watching closely to see how the show fares in its new incarnation. After all, the real money for TV producers comes not during a show's first run, but when it is sold to individual TV stations around the country through syndication.

"Our entire industry is based on how well the other guy is doing," said Jay Cooper, entertainment attorney at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. "What 'Survivor' has shown us, and a couple of these other shows, is that there is a market to see this kind of thing. Is there a long-lasting market? That I don't know."

Will it have legs?

Certain reality-based shows have an intangible quality that makes them appealing years after they're filmed, but the same can't be said for most of them, in Cooper's opinion.

"It's not like watching a great comedian, which you could watch 50 times, a thousand times," he said. "(A reality show) will have a limited life for people who haven't seen it before, but it won't have the loyal fans like people who watch 'Lucy,' who see it over and over."

MTV's advantage with syndicating "Real World" is a devoted audience base that tunes in to watch when previous seasons are played during the network's weekend-long marathons, Cooper said.

That proven history may help "Real World" break away from the pack as more reality shows become available in syndication. These days, with so many reality shows in the works, syndication is suddenly becoming a viable option for first-run reality-based series. The timing certainly worked in favor of MTV.

"We're going to be a year out before anybody else is going to be able to get on the air," said Donald Silvey, senior vice president of programming enterprises and business development for MTV. "In this case, it definitely worked out nicely."

With reality-TV shows sweeping the industry, it's almost hard to believe that MTV executives had to struggle to bring "Real World" -- which thrusts seven strangers into a swank pad for months and tapes their actions and ruminations -- to the syndication market.

Two years ago, MTV executives were about to launch the seventh season of "Real World" when they realized they had enough episodes to syndicate the show, one of the network's most popular series.

Reruns of sitcoms, talk shows and original action-adventure series are the most frequently syndicated programming genres. Throwing a new format -- a reality-based program -- into the mix was pretty much unheard-of two years ago, pre-"Survivor" and all the similar shows it is spawning.

MTV officials struggled to find a distributor who wouldn't shove the show onto a back burner in favor of other programs, finally discovering Chuck Larsen, president of October Moon Television. The company is primarily a distribution consulting firm, but Larsen does occasionally step in and act as a distributor if the circumstances are right.

"We might have gotten lost in some of the bigger syndication-type companies. Chuck runs his own company and only takes on a certain number of projects. He nurtured this along in the right way," Silvey said. "I don't know if we would have gotten the attention that some of the sitcoms and talk shows get, because they seem to be much bigger priorities for the bigger syndication companies."

Heavy interest

Larsen and the executives at MTV can certainly feel vindicated now; "Real World" is slated to launch Oct. 2 in syndication on 179 television stations, covering more than 90 percent of the country. "That's a successful launch. I'm very pleased with that," Larsen said.

"We were very surprised with the number of stations that picked up the show and the number of clearances we were able to get," Silvey added.

The market saturation is even more successful considering that all those stations agreed to sign the show last fall and winter, before "Survivor" mania gripped the country.

"Survivor" did help "Real World" in the syndication process this summer, however, when those stations that bought the show started lining up their fall schedules.

"It helped us get better time periods than we could have otherwise," Larsen said.

("Real World" will air locally beginning Oct. 2 on KCAL-TV Channel 9, Monday through Friday, from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.)

These days, Larsen and his team at October Moon are busy making sure "Real World" gets off the ground smoothly. They're checking on commercials, on-air promotions and other marketing materials, plus deciding which shows to schedule on selected days. Once the show goes on the air, they'll have to make sure it is properly fed to the satellites beaming it across the country and that the stations record it for future playback.

What will happen next year is, obviously, still up in the air.

"I have had some conversations about a second season, which I think there will be," Larsen said.