While watching TV the other day, I noticed that the latest episode of a new series was labeled as “Brand New”. Not “New”, not “New Episode”, but “Brand New”. This strikes me as a bit odd, since the notion of new with regards to a TV show is really an all-or-nothing thing. If the episode has never aired before, then it’s new. Otherwise, it’s not.

With that in mind, it doesn’t make any sense that a particular episode could be anything besides “New” or a repeat. This makes labels like “Brand New” and “All New” rather superfluous, since the show can’t be newer than new. However, if these hyperbolic labels help generate a larger audience than just plain “New”, I guess TV networks will continue using them — even if they don’t convey any additional information to the viewer.