If I Ran The Network: 'Person Of Interest: Revealed'

Whether you're a broadcast network or a cable channel, reruns are an important (and inevitable) part of your revenue stream. Reairing episodes of your best shows aren't just important economically, the reruns serve as a reminder to fans why they watched the show in the first place.

The various Discovery channels have expertly figured out multiple ways to repurpose and retweak episodes of the most popular shows and the ideas have become a regular fixture on competing networks. Aftershows such as "After The Catch" are  cheap to crank out and they give viewers a chance to hear the inside scoop on the episode they've just watched. And then there's the explosion of episodes that are reworked "Pop-Up Video" style with factoids about the show and related facts about whatever profession the show focuses on.

But those reworkings have so far been limited to non-scripted/documentary/reality programming and in most cases that makes sense. Scripted dramas wouldn't work as well adorned with pop-up factoids and as much as I love dramas such as "Longmiere," I can't imagine an aftershow would add much to the viewing experience.

These programming ideas haven't been tried on broadcast television primarily because the reality or unscripted programs that air on broadcast TV typically don't end up being rerun later in the season. But what about applying these ideas to a scripted program?

Given the stream of news about NSA intelligence gathering and the explosion of goverement and private surveillance, the premise of CBS drama "Person Of Interest" resonates even stronger this summer than it did over the course of its first two seasons. The show centers around Finch (played by Michael Emerson), a billionaire computer programmer who built a machine that gathers video, audio and data from every conceivable database and camera. He originally developed the machine as a way to predict terrorist activity before it happens. But the machine also predicts the murders of average people and he enlisted a former CIA operative (Jim Caviezel) to help him stop the deaths before they occur. The show touches on the dangers of such surveillance and the likelihood that when it comes to intelligence gathering, even the best intentions can go horribly astray.

Rewatching a recent episode, it struck me that "Person of Interest" would be the perfect scripted show to get a info balloon treatment. There are so many related facts that can't be included in the script of an episode and all the talk in the news about government surveillance makes it more likely the audience would be drawn to the these beefed up episodes.

With CBS airing reruns of the show on its new night in anticipation of the third season premiere this fall, if I ran the network, I would have ordered the retweaked episodes. Not only would they likely do well on CBS this summer, the beefed-up episodes would also do well in syndication and could even be included in a DVD set or for sale individually on iTunes and Amazon.

"If I Ran The Network" is a regular column that introduces programming ideas and other business moves I would make if I ran a TV network. Have a comment or suggestion? Share it in the comments section below or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..