Will The TV Sitcom Ever Come Back?
It’s hard to believe now, but in the late eighties, early nineties, comedy was king on all the major networks, and the sitcom ruled them all. Sitcoms such as “Seinfeld”, “Friends”, “Cheers”, “Golden Girls” and many more brought in millions of dollars in ad revenues for ABC, CBS and NBC. What happened to the viewing public wanting to laugh? There are a few answers that you will find kind of shocking, but if you think about it, it does make sense. The surprising aspect of the waning days of the sitcom, is the fact that 9-11 did not make everybody turn away from shows like “The Sopranos”, or “24”, which was just getting started. The only sitcom that benefited from a viewer upswing after 911 was “Friends”. They had a 20% increase in overall viewership two Thursdays later following that horrible Tuesday morning. After 9-11, reality shows were still huge and going stronger until the inevitable burnout of the genre resulted in lower ratings for hits like “Survivor” and “Fear Factor”. The tv s
