Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein believe they have a better way of creating shows for broadcast syndication.

Rather than just cook up a talk show or sitcom and insist that stations sign on for two years based on a pilot or a promo reel, the co-presidents and partners of Debmar-Mercury produce and test their shows in limited runs on a small group of stations or a cable network. And only shows that pass the test by drawing an audience go into full production. Stations know what they are getting.

So far, the model seems to be proving itself.

The model for their model is Tyler Perry's House of Payne, a domestic sitcom produced by Perry. After a successful 10-episode run on TBS and TV stations in 2006, TBS ordered an additional 100 episodes and began airing the show to record cable audiences in June 2007. It leaped into broadcast syndication in September 2008.

Marcus and Berstein doubled down with Perry, creating Meet the Browns with him. After it passed its audition, it debuted on TBS last June. And Debmar-Mercury announced just last week that it had cleared the show across 70 percent of the United States for a fall 2010 launch in broadcast syndication.

Marcus and Bernstein have also moved into first run talk with The Wendy Williams Show. After a promising test on four Fox stations in 2008, they rolled the show out in national syndication last July. Its success was confirmed with the announcement — also last week — that Fox had renewed the show through the 2011-12 season.

Coming up are two more sitcoms. One is a yet-unnamed show starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) and being produced by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy. It will get its test run on Comedy Central next year.

The other is Are We There Yet? starring Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris). Joe Roth, Ice Cube and Chris showrunner Ali LeRoi are producing with plans for a 10-episode test on TBS next year.

The trick with the sitcoms, of course, is finding the right creative partners. They must be willing to run the risk of producing and testing the show along with Debmar-Mercury. In lieu of their normal fees, the producers retain big ownership stakes in the shows. The payoff comes when the shows settle in for long runs in syndication.

Another aspect of the business model is the speed with which shows are produced. For TBS, Perry has produced 172 episodes of House of Payne and more than 80 of Meet the Browns. That has allowed Debmar-Mercury to take the shows into broadcast syndication much more quickly than shows originally produced for broadcast networks at a pace of a couple of dozen a year.

In this interview with TVNewsCheck Editor Harry A. Jessell, Marcus and Bernstein discuss their unusual production and syndication tactics, promise that other talk shows and sitcoms are in the work and express a strong belief in the future of TV broadcasting — but not before chatting a bit about the latest big news in syndication.

The edited transcript:

What do you make of all this fuss about Oprah?

Bernstein: I think it's going to be the defining moment in syndication.

That's pretty heavy. What do you mean?

Bernstein: I would look at license fees. It's not going to be the same.

She certainly wasn't going to get the fees that she had been getting. Do you think that played into the decision?

Berstein: It was a small factor. At the end of the day, she is going out a winner, as the biggest ever. Why go out there and take decreases in license fees and have to get in the mud? She doesn't need to do that.

Marcus: I don't think it's about the license fees. I really don't. She doesn't need more money. She's done every show you can do. She's done it for a really long time. She has got to quit sooner or later. What does two more years do for her? It doesn't do anything for her. Now, by the way, I don't think she's going to do the Oprah show on OWN.

How come?

Marcus: She gets a 5 rating in syndication, right? If she does the exact same show on Discovery, it will do like a 1.2 because, no matter what anybody says, it matters where you are and, if you're on Discovery, people won't watch because they will be watching whatever else is on ABC. She will get a bigger number than Discovery gets now, but she won't get to the 5. She is going to look like a failure. So, I don't believe she is going to do that. I think what she is going to do is, when she can get her Sarah Palin | More …