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.
