Are sitcoms coming back? And Could Netflix become home to the Olympics?

The common consensus is that sitcoms are a dead format and that audiences don’t really want to watch them. It has been almost seven years since the last big successful sitcom The Big Bang Theory aired its final episode, so it isn’t as though there is conclusive proof to shoot down belief. And yet, viewers (including the youngsters) are still watching Friends and Seinfeld and… The Big Bang Theory.

That suggests to me that the problem isn’t with the format - it is more a consequence of there just not being enough of them put into development and aired/streamed. We also haven’t seen a successful multi-camera sitcom (ie a comedy with an audience filmed on a set) come from a streamer yet.

There’s good news today with Deadline reporting that NBC has ordered two new sitcoms to join its moderately successful Reba’s Place sitcom on the schedule. But don’t get your hopes up about either being the saviour of the sitcom.

One is a new sitcom from Kari Lizer, a longtime sitcom writer who I first noticed as a writer back on the Weird Science TV show back in the mid-90s, but is better known as the creator of The New Adventures of Old Christine. That show will star Katey Segal opposite Jane Lynch.

The other is from former Trophy Wife and black-ish writer Gail Lerner and was supposed to star Jamie Lee Curtis when first developed for Netflix, but she will now take an EP credit instead with a possible recurring role.

It’s great that NBC is investing in sitcoms, but with both commissioned to support Reba’s Place, it is clear that they are chasing much older audiences with these shows. They’re not the youthful, urbane sitcoms that tend to drive enthusiasm with younger viewers. And it is those shows that tend to live on for decades in content libraries.

Back in the 90s, the era of peak sitcom, every network seemed to have at least a half dozen shows about a group of friends dealing with relationships. I appreciate that the young people are less inclined to be watching broadcast TV these days, but surely there’s an opportunity to try a few out. We may not be in the peak sitcom era anymore, but we are very much in the peak f**k around and find out era, so why not give it a go?

Maybe it doesn’t take. Or maybe you get that new show which will generate 200 episodes and a few hundred million dollars in profits.

Related:

James Hibbs at RadioTimes in the UK is asking whether Shrinking may be last ‘sadcom.’

The article gets into some interesting areas. He writes:

For a psychological perspective, I turned to Dr Luke Hodson, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick.

“People like to watch sad films,” Hodson notes. The research on this goes back decades, actually. There was some work that was done right in the early ‘90s which they called the ‘sad film paradox’ of, why do people like to watch things that essentially make them emotional?

“Not so long ago, that was investigated again, and the research seems to indicate it’s because people like to be moved. So it’s not so much the feeling of the emotion. I think that people are certainly attracted to that feeling of, ‘I want to feel like I’ve been moved’, and whatever meaning that gives them. So I think when things started to trend towards this mixed media, it’s maybe people were craving that.”

Hodson notes that, particularly in the case of a TV comedy, which often have shorter runtimes than dramas, it’s “a nice, controlled way of feeling those things”.

“If it’s in a 30 minute programme where I get to see these things or feel them, it’s like a nice parcelled-out way of processing or thinking about those things, and it perhaps stops having to have those bigger questions about how this might be impacting you, he says. “It’s quite attractive to have this small block of time that’s dedicated to processing these things.”

So, why might that be changing now?

“I think that from a broad level, it seems to reflect the state of the world,” Hodson suggests. “So, when things are kind of okay, people are trying to get that sense of movement, and then when the world goes a little bit the opposite way, they don’t need that from there anymore - or they’re getting that sense of a wider connection to the world from other sources, so they’re craving something a bit simpler.”

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Is Netflix the future of the Olympics

There are 49 territories across Europe where Warner Bros Discovery hold the broadcast rights to the Olympics. It renewed its deal with the IOC in 2023, which will give it Olympics broadcast rights through to 2032. These rights in many territories are shared with other broadcasters.

Mid-year, WBD will split itself into two, with Warner Bros becoming the home of the on-demand entertainment programming (the movie studio, HBO Max, the content library, etc), while Discovery Global will be the home of the linear channels (including the free-to-air channels in Europe). What apparently is yet-to-be-decided is where the rights to the Olympic Games is to be assigned.

Deadline has a story today that looks into this and explores what the future of the Olympics broadcast in Europe might look like when/if Netflix takes control.

A recent online survey of HBO Max subscribers suggests that the company is very interested in exploring the relationship the streamer’s subscribers have with the Olympics and the value they offer to retain them for the streaming platform.

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News Desk

• Former The Abandons showrunner Kurt Sutter has come out slamming Netflix for interfering with his show and causing the budget to balloon as the show sought to fix mistakes made by leadership decisions. Read: Deadline

• There are two really interesting things to note out of Casey Bloys interview with Deadline about the state of all things HBO. The first is that HBO has so many high profile shows that are looking at potential final seasons - The Last of Us being a key title. The second is how much reduced budgets are getting shows on an annual schedule is a focus. Read: Deadline

• Milo Ventimiglia will star in American Blue, HBO Max’s effort to replicate the success of The Pitt with a police drama. Read: Variety

• As rumors swirl that the Disney board is set to meet and vote on a new CEO this week, current CEO Bob Iger has reportedly told associates he plans to step down as CEO and pull back from daily management before the end of this year. Never go back, Bob. Read: WSJ

• Current CNN chief Mark Thompson reportedly turned down feelers on his interest in the BBC director-general job. Read: The Guardian

• Creators and well-wishers kept Don Lemon’s YouTube channel active while Lemon found himself arrested and charged with federal civil rights crimes late last week after trying to live-stream a protest at a church service in Minnesota earlier in January. Read: Variety

• Don Lemon will be a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday night. Read: LateNighter

• Netflix has renewed Danish crime show The Asset for a second season. Read: Deadline

• It’s Florida, Man has been renewed for a third season at HBO. Read: thefutoncritic

• Isaac Rouse takes a deep dive look at the similarities between new Marvel series Wonder Man and recent anime series Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider. Read: Polygon

• Bluey is being added to Minecraft. Read: Bleeding Cool

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Headline of the day

Know that the article delivers (with pictures) exactly what the headline promises.

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Trailer Park

The Museum of Innocence debuts on Netflix Feb 13.

In 1970s Istanbul, a man's forbidden love for a shop-girl evolves into a lifelong journey of obsession and longing. Based on Orhan Pamuk's iconic novel.

In The Mud is set to return to Netflix for season 2 Feb 13.

Girl From Nowhere: The Reset debuts on Netflix March 7.

It's time for a reckoning. Six new schools, six new issues, six new episodes. And one Nanno to put them on trial.

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That’s the newsletter for the today.

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