Don't Laugh: Comedies Rule
Tuesday, March 20, 2007; Page C07
Comedy is alive and well on television.
Kinda.
Television Blog |
Turns out, you're spending more time than ever watching comedies on ad-supported television, according to a new study by the media ad-buy firm Magna Global.
Viewership of broadcast network sitcoms has dropped, but you're more than making up the difference by watching comedy in syndication and on ad-supported cable, the study says.
In fact, more people are watching "Seinfeld," "Friends" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" this season than when the shows were at the height of their popularity on their respective broadcast networks, according to the study's author, Magna Global Executive Vice President Steve Sternberg.
In 1993-94, the average U.S. TV household spent just under four hours a week watching comedies. This season, it's just over 4 1/2 hours, the study asserts.
"Every year at this time, as the networks start revealing their program development plans for the new season, press stories abound about how they might revive the genre and get viewers back to watching comedies," Sternberg writes.
"Seldom noted in these stories, however, is the fact that people still like watching comedies and, in fact, are watching them more than ever."
Which is why Sternberg predicts we'll see more comedy in the broadcast networks' lineups next season. This week, the broadcasters are chatting up their new-season development to advertisers; those schedules will be unveiled to advertisers in May.
During the '93-94 TV season, there were about 180 hours a week of comedies on TV, including broadcast, syndication and ad-supported cable.
This season, it's up to more than 600 hours a week, even though this season marked a record low in the number of comedy hours per week across the broadcast networks.
There are a lot more high-profile comedies in syndication these days. Back in the '93-94 season, only eight comedies played in syndication, and six of them were so-called "off-network" programs, which means they'd already aired on a broadcast network and had moved to syndication in repeats.
