premiere

Two or three weekends ago, I watched a program, The Tudors, on BBCAmerica. It was ten episodes, One through ten, and it was repeated at least once. During the programs, the commercials were touting the new premiere (there's another kind?) of the series on Wednesday nights. That was interesting. The Tudors, especially wicked old Henry VIII, were interesting people, all five of them. And I was ready to take up the shows where they left off -- shortly after Anne Boleyn's execution.

Come that Wednesday night, imagine my surprise when the "new premiere" was episode 1 of the  exact same series that had been on at least twice that Sunday.

I've observed this before. The Harry Potter movies have had more premieres than they have fans, or so it seems. They have premiered on Pay TV, on cable TV, on network TV, and most recently they have premiered, individually, on this or that channel. Harry Potter has premiered on ABC Family channel about two thousand times. The 'premieres' now include a Wednesday night premiere or Sunday morning premieres.

I checked the most recent online dictionaries. Premiere is still defined as a first time appearance. Not a detailed first time appearance.

Not a synonym for rerun.

I don't watch Wednesday night premieres anymore. I've already seen the show.