Are Network Comedies Dead?

Comedies are why I watch television. The big comedy blocks of the late ’80s and all of the ’90s–TGIF and Must See TV–formed how I view what television should be. I’ve always subconsciously thought that TV, specifically network TV, was all about the half-hour comedy. I’m wrong. And I’ve been wrong for a while.

While researching a mega piece about the fall 2018 TV ratings, I learned in excruciating detail that every network sitcom not starring a Sheldon is criminally under-watched. The Good Place can’t scrounge up 3 million viewers, Fresh Off the Boat is tanking hard in its new Friday home, and The Neighborhood is considered a solid hit with just under 7 million viewers a week. Not even the return of an iconic series like Murphy Brown goosed numbers; it too is hovering under the 7 million a week mark, a far cry from the show’s ’90s heyday. And even a 21st century blockbuster like Modern Family is sagging in the ratings now that its in its 10th season, averaging around half of what it scored at the show’s peak.

The only sitcoms that consistently crack the weekly top 30 are The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, The Conners, and Mom. As for the rest? Reality competition shows (The Voice, Survivor), football, procedurals (Blue Bloods, The Good Doctor), and shows about Chicago (Med, Fire, and PD). It’s like if comedies want to crack the top 30, they need to double their length, halve their jokes, and maybe have their lead get friended by God on Facebook.

Doing that research left me feeling really bad about the state of network comedy–which is a bummer because I’ve used the term “renaissance” to describe network sitcoms twice recently. But look at the shows I wrote about in those pieces: the fantastic Great News was canceled, as was Trial & Error. And over on CBS, not enough people are watching Happy Together. It just feels like there’s no place for network sitcoms anymore!

Me being me, I decided to actually see if this is a new thing or a thing I’m just noticing because I spent hours in a Google spreadsheet, poring over ratings. Turns out the latter is true–which is, I guess, good news? The major networks aren’t ordering a lot of new comedies, but they haven’t exactly cut down on them either. Overall, there are 26 half-hour comedies on the four major networks in the fall of 2018, and there were 25 in the fall of 2014. Not that much has changed.

The change comes, instead, in how many people are watching comedies on the big four–and the outlook has actually been grim for quite some time!

This chart visualizing the decline of hit network comedies over the last 25 television seasons tells a whole lotta story. The rise of reality TV, the rise of basic and premium cable comedies, the rise of the internet, the rise of single-cam comedies, the rise of streaming, the rise of the dramedy, and the entire runs of era-defining shows like Friends and (you know it’s true) Two and a Half Men. During the 1994-1995 TV season, 18 of the top 30 hit shows were half-hour sitcoms. That includes Friends and Seinfeld and Home Improvement, but it also includes Dave’s World, Hope and Gloria, and Me and the Boys. Martin Short had his own sitcom in the top 30 programs of the season and it didn’t even make it to episode four.

And then Friends went off the air. That decline right there, between 2003-2004 (7 comedies in the top 30) and 2004-2005 (only 2), is steep–and the networks haven’t recovered since. Friends was special because it, like Seinfeld and Cheers before it, lifted the ratings of an entire night; Frasier and Will & Grace were in the top 30 that season as part of NBC’s powerhouse Thursday night lineup. Without Friends (and also Frasier, which ended in 2004), Will & Grace and the entire Thursday night lineup shed viewers.

A whole lot has changed in the almost 15 years since Friends went off the air, too. Arrested Development Season 1 aired alongside Friends‘ final season, and that show would become the blueprint for “successful” comedies in the 21st century: critically successful with a cult following, but dead in the ratings. The Office, which debuted the fall after Friends went off the air, was never even in the top 40 in the ratings despite being a fave to this day. Parks and Recreation only made the top 100 in Season 1! And Community notoriously struggled in the ratings, escaping cancellation and surviving a network jump before finally wrapping up. For a lot of network comedy fans, these shows felt like huge hits. They weren’t, not outside our bubble. I’m a bit shook?

Outside of the networks, though, comedy is healthy. There’s no shortage of brilliance on networks like FXX or HBO, or streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video. Comedies on those networks–like Barry, Atlanta, or Marvelous Mrs. Maisel–are able to go further than their network counterparts and aren’t restricted to a 20-minute runtime and strict censors. But still, I have a fondness for these network shows–and networks know that. Why else are they bringing back shows from the days of blockbuster ratings, like Will & Grace, Roseanne, and Murphy Brown? The networks have no doubt noticed this era of downward decline and are hoping lightning will strike twice. Looking at the ratings of these revivals, they’ve learned that lightning can strike twice every 20 years, but it won’t keep striking week after week.

I don’t know why more people aren’t watching comedies on the major networks. Apologies if it sounded at any point like I was going to come to a profound conclusion! There are a lot of really good shows on right now (Superstore, The Cool Kids, The Neighborhood, etc.), and they’re shows that really take your mind off of the sludge dumpster that is reality. I honestly don’t know why an hourlong formulaic show about cops or bachelorettes is more comforting to people than a half hour formulaic show about a family or co-workers. One format is literally there to make you laugh! And it takes up half the time! But I can’t say that network comedies are dead because they’ve really been on ratings life support since Friends went off the air. Great shows, some of the best shows, have been made and are on the air right now (please, please watch The Good Place before it hits Netflix). I just shouldn’t be surprised that no one’s watching them.