kinescope recordings of shows broadcast live from the East Coast. This allowed the show to be broadcast later for the West Coast. These kinescopes, along with pre-filmed shows, and later, videotape, paved the way for extensive reruns of syndicated television series. During hiatus In the United States, currently running shows will rerun older episodes from the same season to fill the time slot with the same program during the "off-season" period when no new episodes are being made. Shows will tend to start rerunning episodes after the November sweeps period (the ratings during which will determine the cost of a commercial run during that time slot). and usually show only reruns from mid-December until mid-January or even February sweeps. This winter (or "mid-season") phase is also used to try out new shows that did not make it onto the fall schedule to see how they fare with the public. These series usually run six to 13 episodes. If they do well with the public, they may get a renewal for a half (13 weeks) or full season in the new schedule. Shows that are already popular will return from February sweeps until the end of the season (which sometimes ends before May sweeps) with only limited reruns used. The number of episodes per season, originally well over 30 episodes during the 1950s and 1960s, dropped below 26 (the number of episodes required to fill a time slot for a year without rerunning any episode more than once) in the 1970s. Specials typically pad out the remainder of the schedule. Television specials Often, if a television special such as Peter Pan or a network television broadcast of a classic film like The Wizard of Oz is especially well-received, it will be rerun from time to time. Before the VCR era, this would be the only opportunity audiences had of seeing a program more than once. Seasonal programming such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Ten Commandments, It's A Wonderful Life or the Charlie Brown television specials are normally re-shown each year, in the appropriate timeframe. Syndication A television program goes into syndication when many episodes of the program are sold as a package. Generally the buyer is either a cable channel or an owner of local television stations. Often, programs are not particularly profitable until they are sold for syndication. Since local television stations often need to sell more commercial