There's no easy answer to this one, and there almost never will be because there are so many different factors for why a show is (or isn't) rerun.

On the seller's side, for example, there's who owns the rights, what they paid to get them, what they charge for licensing fees, and more. On the buyer's (broadcaster) side, there's the same license-fee question, but also who they think their audience is (an inexact science) and what they think they want (an even less exact science).

Multiply those factors by the number of different channels that play reruns and by the ever-increasing number of shows available for syndication, and you get to the point where a show's chances of being run are close to random, mathematically speaking.

Your point about the other spinoffs is interesting, though. If the game is random, why do the other CSIs keep winning?

There are some things going against "CSI: NY," the main one being it was less popular than the original version and "CSI: Miami." (I'm not even going to talk about "CSI: Cyber," which didn't produce enough episodes for regular syndication.)

It also produced fewer episodes -- it ran for nine seasons, compared to 10 for "Miami," and a whopping 15 plus a movie for the original show. More episodes is generally better for a show going into repeats because it gets less, well, repetitive.

The other two shows are also just a little more iconic. Though "NY" star Gary Sinise ("Apollo 13," 1995) can be fun to watch, the image of "Miami's" Horatio Caine (David Caruso, "NYPD Blue") taking off his sunglasses to make a bad pun before that song by The Who kicks in is a symbol of the franchise that even non-fans recognize. And the original will always be the original. "NY" just can't top that.

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