The slow death of the sitcom

Hi, friend! Despite the countless new shows and movies streaming services churn out every month, audiences still spend an enormous amount of time watching old favorites. In 2023, Nielsen found that 60% of U.S. streaming time was spent on shows that originally aired on traditional television. And the genre that disproportionately dominates is the classic sitcom—juggernauts like Friends, Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and of course, The Office.

After seeing the recent news that 1) Seinfeld will stay on Netflix for five more years and 2) Hulu canceled Mindy Kaling’s new Gen Z sitcom, I started thinking: Why is Hollywood so bad at making modern sitcoms? Sure, there are a few diamonds in the rough like Abbott Elementary and What We Do in the Shadows, but by and large, the new ones stink!

Keep reading for my breakdown of why new sitcoms don’t make us laugh the way the classics do and why they seemingly all get canceled after a season or two. Plus, my curated list of 6 hilarious new sitcoms that are actually worth watching.

Seinfeld (1989)

Comfort-viewing

Every fall, as the weather turns and cozy season begins, viewers are naturally drawn to characters and worlds they’re familiar with. For me, it’s The Office. The Office and I have been through so much together. It was the first series I watched every episode of, it’s the show my friends and I quote every week, and it was the background noise in my college dorm room as I ate lunch after class. That level of passion for a show can only be established through hundreds of episodes and years of viewership. Modern sitcoms simply haven’t existed long enough to fill that comfort-viewing space for people, and most of them get cancelled before they ever get the chance to develop a loyal fanbase.

The Office (2005)

The full breakdown is right behind this.

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