Will NBC’s ‘Kingpin’ Score or Be Three-Peat Offender?

NBC is pulling out all its guns for “Kingpin.”

The network on Sunday night will air its dark new drama about a Mexican drug lord and his family. NBC will then take advantage of its new acquisitions by broadcasting a Spanish-dubbed version next month on Telemundo, while an “R-rated” version with more sex and profanity will run on its new cable channel, Bravo.

The General Electric Co.-owned network’s plans for “Kingpin” illustrate how far the TV industry has come.

When the WB network tried nearly two years ago to rerun the show “Charmed” on the Turner Network Television channel, for example, advertisers howled in protest. They contended that the value of the advertising they purchased was diminished by multiple runs on cable.

But this year, NBC and other networks are beginning to rerun -- or “repurpose” -- shows and special events on sister cable channels in an attempt to wring as much money as they can from costly shows.

“Honestly, this is an experiment to see how a show like this works,” NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said Friday. “It’s a huge risk for the network ... and it’s an experiment to see whether the show works on cable.”

The show itself is a gamble because executives are uncertain whether network audiences will embrace its adult themes.

NBC ordered only six episodes and will run two episodes a week for three weeks during the all-important February sweeps.

The drama about a Latino family is “perfectly positioned” for Telemundo’s Spanish-speaking audience, Zucker said, and its content seemed a good fit for Bravo, which typically runs more adult-oriented fare.

The network will delay repeating the show on Bravo and Telemundo to avoid angering advertisers that have agreed to pay more than $250,000 for a 30-second spot during its NBC run.

Advertisers that buy commercials a month later when “Kingpin” reruns will pay just a fraction of the network rate.

“What we’re doing with ‘Kingpin’ is really innovative -- it’s never been done before,” said Randy Falco, who this week took over as NBC network group president with a mandate to integrate NBC, Bravo and Telemundo.

That demand for integration comes as the economics of TV have changed dramatically. Syndication and foreign distribution, avenues that networks traditionally use to help pay for the cost of programming, no longer are a sure thing.

As a result, networks have been itching to duplicate HBO’s successful model of running an episode several times a week.

Advertisers and affiliate stations, which worry about losing viewers to cable, are starting to warm to the idea as networks press forward.

ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co., initially faced resistance from its affiliate stations last year when it turned over episodes of new comedies to the ABC Family cable channel.

The two sides eventually agreed to allow ABC to rerun “Life With Bonnie” and “Less Than Perfect” later on cable. ABC also has reprised its dating show “The Bachelor.”

The News Corp.-owned FX channel is airing “24” a week after it runs on Fox. CBS, owned by Viacom Inc., has revamped Michael Jackson, Shania Twain and Ricky Martin music specials for later appearances on MTV or VH1. And in a reversal of the broadcast-network-to-cable trend, CBS recently reached a deal to run sanitized versions of R-rated Showtime movies.

“You’re going to see a lot more of this repurposing,” Falco predicted.