I first noticed back when ABC had Less Than Perfect on that sitcoms were getting shorter. Less Than Perfect had episodes around 19 minutes. Mom, on CBS, had episodes shorter. Some of Mom's episodes run at barely 18 minutes. I wonder how this works for syndication. When old sitcoms from the 50's to the 80's (which usually had lengths of 24 to 25 minutes) reran on N@N, they had about 3 to 4 minutes cut out for commercials. I can't imagine shows today getting that much cut out for commercials in syndication. Episodes wouldn't make any sense.