The comedy genre is heating up and with The Big Bang Theory turning into a ratings beast and Modern Family performing well for ABC, the momentum is spilling over to the development season according to Variety:
That upbeat forecast helped fuel a bit of a buying frenzy this summer, as the nets nabbed more comedy projects than normal, particularly of the multicamera variety.
More recently, the success of "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town" and the critical acclaim behind "The Middle," "Community" and even improved soph laffer "Parks and Recreation" has led to a last-minute surge in single-camera comedy purchases.
"There's definitely an enthusiasm (for comedy) this year," says one network exec. "Everyone sees an opportunity, and has been emboldened by the early success of some shows."
Also possibly fueling the comedy explosion is the sheer number of out-of-work comedy writers with time on their hands to craft new, well-thought-out concepts.
I've heard rumbles that Parks & Recreation is better this year, but it's hard to get excited about its ratings. Its also hard to be excited about the ratings for Hank and The Middle as well as the 8pm Wednesday block on CBS of The New Adventures of Old Christine and Gary Unmarried. 30 Rock premiered with good, but certainly not great numbers, and though Community had good numbers at 9:30p, at 8p they're nothing to get excited about.
Though it hasn't aired yet this season, Better Off Ted hasn't gotten any legs so far either.
That said, The Office still has some legs in it, and the whole CBS 8p-10pm Monday night block performs on a range from solid single to the home run that is The Big Bang Theory.
Though for every The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men or The Office there are a slew of ratings failures, the hits pay big dividends both for the networks that air them and the studios who produce them.
I haven't followed things closely enough for long enough to know whether this is a normal cycle, "herd mentality," a bit of both or something else. But either way it's good news for sitcom fans as they'll likely be seeing even more new comedies down the road.
This reminded me of how much I dislike Variety-speak. “Laffers?” Sigh.
Anyway, with a few exceptions I’m not so crazy about the comedies that are on these days. I’m not sure if getting more of them is such good news for me. But I guess if more get the chance to make it to air, there’s a better chance one I really like will come around.
How many out of work comedy writers are there, compared to the usual? Vs. last fall, it seems to me that there are more comedies on the air right now, and at least an equal amount waiting in the wings.
Parks and Recreation is much better this season. I wish more people would tune in, or NBC would give it another push behind The Office.
Im glad. Hopefully FOX is ordering some because they are sorely lacking in comedies. Tuesday would be a good night for them to launch new comedies, besides Sundays of course.
Yeah Parks to me has been the most consistently funny of the night this season. I think people are just turned off by the Office rip-off vibe. Hope the ratings improve.
Are Variety really trying to peddle the idea that networks and production companies are interested in comedies because of the success of less than a handful of shows and some critical praise for others? The truth is comedy is making a come back of sorts for the same reason Leno is now in prime time – maximising profits. It has nothing to do with the availability of comedy writers and nothing to do with the success of two or three comedies this year and everything to do with lower costs and huge syndication potential.
Just two words folks – ‘Til Death.
Alex, touche’. I agree with your assessment 100%!
I agree, Parks & Rec is actually surprisingly good this season.
For me, comedies pretty much make up my entire list of favorite shows. There are so many great ones on this season. The entire NBC comedy night lineup is solid, ABC’s comedy night has 3 out of 4 shows that are great, CBS has HIMYM and Big Bang Theory (and Christine on Wed), and Fox has the animated shows.
Big Bang is my current favorite but all time favorite has to be seinfeld
Parks and Recreation is great this year! Dare I say I have been enjoying it more than The Office!?
Also, Bryan Fuller is working on 2 comedies for NBC and JJ Abrams is also working on a dramedy. So more comedies to come.
More comedies is a good thing. I just wish it was more more multi-camera sitcoms, the single-camera part made me a little sad. I don’t hate single-camera sitcoms, but I do prefer the multi-camera ones.
Alex is correct to an extent, but the truth is that there are also longstanding cycles that should drive comedies to eventually make a comeback. I think the main reason for this historically has been oversaturation of the market – TV nets all jump on a bandwagon and program a certain genre to death, then a show in a different genre takes off and the cycle starts all over again.
If you look at the amount of comedies on the air in the 90′s, the last few years for comedy writers have been slim pickings. If you’ll remember, TV was awash with sitcoms until around 2000, when procedurals like CSI and L&0 really took off. And back in the 80′s, sitcoms were on the wane until the Cosby Show became a massive hit. And in the late ’50′s, half of primetime TV was westerns.
Sitcoms will really come back when one captures the consciousness of America. In today’s crowded marketplace, however, this is becoming harder and harder to accomplish.
The problem that I see with the way NBC premiered Parks and Rec is that they never gave it the 9:30 slot. Not even one time.
The only episode that aired after the Office was the premiere, and that was already in its usual 8:30 slot. The Office that aired before it (at 8:00) got a 3.4 demo rating… the lowest it would get all season long.
That is hardly an all-star launch. I know they touted it a ton before the premiere, but I wish it had gotten the Community treatement, with a several-weeks launch behind the 9:00 Office.
I’m all about comedy, but I’m also enormously picky. I don’t like any of the current live action comedies on broadcast TV so I’m doubtful even one of the upcoming comedies will be decent.
wait a minute. 30 Rock had 6.3 mil viewers and a 3.0 and that is considered good?
Also 30 Rock is down by 27% from last year’s premiere but it is still considered a successful premiere this year? Someone please explain.
Lindsey, 3.0 is good. Period. That’s all you need to look at. Not great, but good.
lindsey, out of 98 airings on the big four plus CW, only 37 of them did a 3.0 or better last week, so I will stand by 3.0 being “good but not great”, as for how good it was for the premiere is another story.
Two solid hours each for Fox/CBS, one each for NBC/ABC. Interesting that none of them overlap (Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Wednesday)…
why is this site so negative about 90% of network tv???? its like you want network tv to die…….Everytime you see a small dust of a shadow on something you jump on it with your not so mighty pen and whack away….lol…its really kind of sad.