Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- CBS Corp. sold rerun rights to the prime-time program “NCIS: Los Angeles” to cable’s USA Network after seven episodes of the first season, allowing the broadcaster to defray the cost of the crime drama.

USA, the most-watched cable network, will pay $2.5 million an episode and begin airing the program in 2011, John Wentworth, a spokesman for New York-based CBS, said today in an e-mail.

The accord will boost CBS’s profit starting in the fourth quarter of 2010, Rich Greenfield, a Pali Capital analyst, wrote today in a note. Broadcasts networks are seeking to reduce production costs as advertising sales and audiences shrink. USA’s owner, General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, replaced 10 p.m. weeknight dramas with “The Jay Leno Show” in September.

“It is highly unusual to announce syndication so quickly,” wrote Greenfield, who has a neutral rating on shares of CBS, owner of the most-watched TV network.

“NCIS: Los Angeles,” starring rapper LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell, is the fifth most-watched prime-time program in the current TV season, averaging 17 million viewers an episode, according to data from New York-based Nielsen Co.

USA, which already carries the original “NCIS,” can air the show weekly starting in September 2011 and nightly in September 2013, the New York-based cable channel said in an e- mailed statement.

The agreement was earlier reported by Variety, the media industry trade publication.

CBS fell 7 cents to $12.72 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have gained 55 percent this year. Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE rose 90 cents, or 6.2 percent, to $15.33 and has lost 5.4 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 16:13 EST