Here’s the most counterintuitive fact in Best Of Shows: a well-produced Best Of show can sound better than a live show. It will be tighter, more consistent, and provide higher average quality from the first break to the last. The live show may be great, but a Best Of show has curation and editorial control.
Or, it could send a subtle (or not so subtle) message to your audience that there’s “nothing to hear here” and check back later when something exciting is happening.
Best Of Show advantages are less-than-obvious because most stations produce Best Of programming as a chore that must be completed rather than an opportunity to exploit. It’s a task to check off the list and bridge to when the “real” show is back together again.
The failures are consistent. You hear it on most stations (maybe even yours):
- The show announces itself as replaying content, calling it “Best Of.”
- The audio has dated references that make it sound old.
- Sequencing is random and doesn’t flow from one quarter-hour to the next.
- Production is thin.
The result: the audience tunes out. Unfortunately, many programmers conclude that Best Of programming doesn’t work, whilc the conclusion should be that this version of Best Of programming doesn’t work because it violates every principle that makes the format effective.
Do it right, and the audience will never know you were gone.
Best Of Programming Rule #1
This rule is supreme:
Never call it a Best Of show.
Ever. Not anywhere in the programming. You can reference it internally, but why would you advertise reruns?
This rule is violated constantly, and every violation is a self-inflicted wound. The moment a show announces, “While our team is on vacation, here are some of their best moments”, it has done three things:
- You told the audience the real show isn’t available.
- It positions the upcoming content as secondhand. Why would you do that?
- You invited listeners to lower their expectations or leave.
Each of those outcomes is unnecessary. The audience doesn’t need to know (nor do they care) that it’s a Best Of. Most won’t figure it out, and the superfans who recognize a segment they’ve heard before are the listeners who like the content enough to hear it again.
An episode of Big Bang Theory in syndication doesn’t open with, “You may have seen this one before.” It opens with the cold open, the theme, and the first scene. The audience may recognize it, or they may not. If they recognize it and keep watching, that’s evidence that the content is good enough to watch twice. If they don’t recognize it, they get a great episode of television without framing that diminishes the experience.
Program Best Of content the same way. Open the show. Make it sound as much like the regular live show as possible. Run the content. Let it speak for itself.
There are only two ways a listener will know the content is recycled: if you tell them, or if the audio has dated references that show its age. You control both. Tell them nothing. Edit carefully.
Yes, Ratings Decline During Best Of Periods, But They Don’t Have To
Ratings typically drop during Best Of periods. This is normal, but it doesn’t mean the Best Of programming is failing. It means the absence of the regular cast affects behavior. Some listeners who tune in for the live personalities notice the difference and tune out more quickly. And even the most carefully programmed Best Of shows doesn’t quite sound like the “normal” performance.
But the meaningful number isn’t the absolute rating during the Best Of period. It’s the gap between the Best Of rating and the show’s regular rating. If you manage to retain 85% of normal performance, it’s a major success. A Best Of period that holds 50% suggests poor content selection, production problems, or an audience relationship so dependent on the live personalities that any absence creates substantial loss, which is useful information about the show’s positioning.
The goal of Best Of programming is to minimize the gap and retain as much of the audience as possible when the regular show isn’t available. That goal is achievable.
Here are a few common practices that separate genuinely effective Best Of programming from content dumps with good intentions.
