JustTV: State of Sitcoms 2005
I've done this twice before, way back in 2000 and 2001, but dropped it out of sheer forgetfulness. I thought it would be fun to take a look at the situation of sitcoms as we enter the second half of the 2004/2005 tv season. What you are about to see is not pretty.
| %
Sitcoms January 2005 |
%
Sitcoms September 2003 |
|
 |
13 |
13 |
 |
9 |
18 |
 |
18 |
23 |
 |
20 |
33 |
 |
30 |
40 |
 |
15 |
31 |
Sort of speaks for itself, doesn't it? Every single network save CBS has dropped sitcoms from their line-ups, with NBC and the WB cutting them by half. NBC's case is particularly surprising- back in the 1997/1998 season, that network was running at 42% sitcoms, now that stands at just 9%. Overall, the networks came into 2005 airing 34 sitcoms, down a dramatic 29% from the 48 they started last season with. And that number could drop further still, but more on that later.
Average Returning Sitcom Age Up Dramatically
| September
2004 |
September
2003 |
|
|
5
years |
4.6
years |
|
5.5 |
6.4 |
|
3.5 |
2.3 |
|
4.25 |
2.3 |
|
3 |
1.5 |
|
4 |
3.3 |
While ABC and the UPN are in okay shape where their sitcom ages are concerned, CBS and NBC certainly are not, while Fox and the WB are on the cusp of having problems. Why is an old average age problematic? Well, series have life spans. Series like "Everybody Loves Raymond" essentially get to their 9th season because the network has nothing else to replace them with. When a network has a higher average age, it means that the sitcoms they're developing are not sticking around for very long. This is certainly true with CBS, a network that has only one stand-out that is less than 7 years old, "Two & A Half Men." NBC's numbers are based on just two sitcoms, "Scrubs" and "Will & Grace," while only "Joey" looks likely to return next fall.
Average Viewership:
| Sitcom
Avg |
Network
Avg. |
Difference |
|
|
12.2
million |
12.9
million |
-4.5% |
|
9.5 |
10.0 |
-5.0 |
|
8.0 |
10.6 |
-24.3 |
|
6.0 |
8.3 |
-27.8 |
|
3.2 |
3.5 |
-8.5 |
|
3.3 |
3.5 |
-5.8 |
The really sad news? Two years ago, the average viewership for all sitcoms across all networks was 9.6 million. Today, only one network even manages to eclipse that number. More sad news? On no network do sitcoms perform better than the lineup as a whole. Remember ABC's 90's sitcoms heyday with "Roseanne," "Home Improvement" and "Grace Under Fire" at the top of the charts? The top rated "According To Jim" currently sits in 36th. NBC's "Friends"/"Seinfeld"/"Frasier" trifecta? "Joey," in 31st.
Top 10 sitcoms: (with at least 5 airings)
| 2000/2001 |
2001/2002 |
2002/2003 |
2003/2004 |
||||||||
| 3 |
Friends |
19.8 |
1 |
Friends |
24.5 |
3 |
Friends |
21.9 |
5 |
Friends |
21.0 |
| 6 |
Raymond |
19.0 |
6 |
Raymond |
20.0 |
9 |
Raymond |
18.7 |
10 |
Raymond |
17.4 |
| 10 |
Will
& Grace |
17.3 |
8 |
Will
& Grace |
17.1 |
11 |
Will
& Grace |
16.9 |
15 |
Will
& Grace |
15.7 |
| 16 |
Becker |
16.1 |
12 |
Becker |
16.3 |
15 |
Scrubs |
16.0 |
16 |
Two
& A Half Men |
15.4 |
| 18 |
Frasier |
15.6 |
14 |
Inside
Schwartz |
15.1 |
19 |
Still
Standing |
14.6 |
29 |
Still
Standing |
11.8 |
| 18 |
Just
Shoot Me |
15.6 |
15 |
Frasier |
14.9 |
24 |
Yes,
Dear |
13.4 |
36 |
King
of Queens |
10.9 |
| 21 |
The
Weber Show |
14.6 |
18 |
Just
Shoot Me |
14.4 |
25 |
King
of Queens |
13.2 |
39 |
Frasier |
10.8 |
| 22 |
Malcolm
In The... |
14.5 |
19 |
King
of Queens |
14.0 |
28 |
Good
Morning Miami |
13.0 |
40 |
Yes,
Dear |
10.7 |
| 25 |
King
of Queens |
13.8 |
20 |
Yes,
Dear |
13.9 |
31 |
Big
Fat Greek... |
12.6 |
45 |
That
70s Show |
10.2 |
| 29 |
Yes,
Dear |
13.2 |
23 |
Malcolm... |
13.0 |
32 |
Frasier |
12.5 |
46 |
Scrubs |
10.1 |
And This Year?
| 7 |
Everybody
Loves Raymond |
17.0 |
| 11 |
Two
& A Half Men |
16.2 |
| 31 |
Joey |
11.5 |
| 32 |
Will
& Grace |
11.5 |
| 36 |
According
To Jim |
10.9 |
| 37 |
King
of Queens |
10.6 |
| 40 |
Still
Standing |
10.4 |
| 41 |
Listen
Up |
10.0 |
| 47 |
Rodney |
9.4 |
| 58 |
The
George Lopez Show |
8.3 |
Keep a few things in mind: the networks have nothing great planned on the sitcom front for the rest of this season, and even if they did, there is no great timeslot for any sitcom, except one, but CBS isn't getting rid of "Two & A Half Men" any time soon. What makes this even more sad: the fact that moost of these sitcoms have only aired 5 or 6 repeats up to this point, and have week of repeats ahead of them before the end of the season. That's going to drive the averages down even further.
The Cure:
Sadly, right now, there is none. Sitcoms have been in decline since "Seinfeld" left the air, and the departure of "Friends" only made that worse. 2 sitcoms in the top 30? 2 in the top 20? What is going on here? The key used to be good timeslots to launch sitcoms, but now there are none. Not one single timeslot, besides the aforementioned Monday at 9:30. The biggest loser is syndication, which relies on sitcoms for the big bucks. But there are none coming. as "Friends," "Raymond" and "Seinfeld" fade in syndication, what's there to replace them- "According to Jim" ?!? SOS- it's going to take a miracle to bring this genre back.