Back when I was still in high school and living exclusively in a cable-free house, the evening ritual - once I had completed my AP Calculus homework and my AP Biology was long procrastinated unto the wee hours of the night - would be to turn on the television and watch my favorite shows. At seven o’clock, Everybody Loves Raymond would come on, and after that, the sitcom of all sitcoms, Seinfeld, would grace my television set. Of course, the latter show was well into syndication since its finale in 1998, and the former, which aired from 1996 to 2005, found a similar fate as Seinfeld in syndication. Almost two years have passed and little has changed: I find myself re-watching - though clinging might be a better word - to sitcoms that have long since expired, just as George Costanza clung to those last scraps of hair atop his balding head. Now the reason why I fail to watch new sitcoms could be that as an erudite, pretentious Ivy Leaguer, I have lost all sense of humor and jocularity, but I wonder if this decline in the American sitcom could be a deeper national trend.

Perhaps the best gauge for what America is watching on the tube nowadays could be the oft-quoted Nielsen Ratings, a weekly analysis of the top ten TV shows and the number of viewers who tuned in for a particular program. These ratings, based on the meticulous surveying of television viewers across the nation and subsequent mathematical configuring, are crucial not only for the Media Research industry but also for the major networks which, based on how a show is performing in reports, can pull the plug just as quickly as the pilot aired. To demonstrate my point regarding a decline in national viewership of situation comedies, let’s compare the top programs for the 1996-1997 seasons and the 2006-2007 seasons.  Ten years ago, amongst the twenty most-watched programs according to the Nielsen ratings, ten were sitcoms: Seinfeld (#2), Friends (#3), Suddenly Susan (#4), The Naked Truth (#5), Fired Up (#6), Home Improvement (#8), The Single Guy (#9), Spin City (#17), The Drew Carey Show (T-#18), and 3rd Rock From the Sun (T-#18). Now, it is worth saying that several of these programs had minimal later success and were cancelled, but a lot of these programs not only were extended for several years but also were fixtures of my, and perhaps your, childhood.

If we look at the Nielsen Ratings for this past season, it becomes obvious that the programs considered popular have drastically changed over the past few years. Since 2002 when Friends took the top spot in the Nielsen Ratings, no sitcom has since graced this premiere position. Of the top twenty programs this past season, only one sitcom made the top twenty (Two and a Half Men(#13)); none cracked the top ten. How has this decline in the American comedy happened, and what does it reflect, possibly, of the mindset of the American viewer?

Obviously, when Mark Burnett’s Survivor hit the American airwaves in 2000 and subsequent “reality” television programs sprung up like vile weeds, the subject matter of network primetime TV drastically shifted. Shows like The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and in some ways the smash hit American Idol became mainstream fixtures that squeezed up slots previously occupied by campy family sitcoms. While the merits of many reality television shows are rightfully questioned, they have nonetheless become staples for an audience yearning to see “real” people making buffoons of themselves as spontaneously and humanly possible with rigid scripts and ferocious editing. Perhaps more importantly, in the same year contestants began outwitting, outplaying, and outlasting, a new breed of the television drama emerged, as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation aired. Like its CBS counterpart, the show was a smash hit and garnered multiple spin-offs and cross-network imitations. While it is true that shows like Law and Order and NYPD Blue were staples of the television drama throughout the Nineties, CSI seemingly revitalized the television viewers’ passion for blood violence, labyrinthine plot twists, and ultimately catching the bad guys. Over the last five years CSI and American Idol have taken the top slot in the Nielsen Ratings, while the only real sitcoms featured on the top twenty lists were the Nineties gems Friends  and Everybody Loves Raymond. While certain comedy programs were very successful on cable during that time, simply put, looking at network television where has the funny gone?

It could be that we as television viewers have grown tired of being tricked in the ersatz lives portrayed in many sitcoms and have instead developed an insatiable thirst for seeing “real-life” humor and intrigue. For many, a scripted punch line simply lacks the comedic elements of Simon Cowell’s vitriol, and the exploits of roommates don’t interest us much unless said roommates are conspiring to murder their well-to-do next-door neighbor. Perhaps the ongoing war in Iraq has left the primetime television watcher in a more somber mood than the freewheeling Clinton days when the biggest worry media could report was the extent to which “Bubba” did it with Monica Lewinsky. This “low morale” theory is probably farfetched, but it is an interesting comparison between the trends of the Nielsen Ratings and the geopolitical timeline during that same period. 

Another, more subtle explanation could be that sitcoms introduced during these past few years have paled in comparison to the comedies we as citizens of the last decade were spoiled by, like Seinfeld and Friends. Certainly several shows do not fit under this blanket of ineptitude, but from personal experience, I find myself comparing every new sitcom to those four self-obsessed Manhattanites and thinking, “This is no Seinfeld.” Whatever the reason, the numbers, albeit those determined by a media research company, do not lie: sitcom popularity has indeed plummeted.

I should note that shows like The Office (American version), My Name is Earl, The New Adventures of Old Christine, and even How I Met Your Mother have received several accolades and have garnered significant viewership, though none were featured in the top twenty programs this past season. These shows, some of which are indeed quite funny, are, to note, based on past ideas and have cast members from prior sitcoms. These aforementioned shows could be a new hope for rejuvenating the American mainstream network sitcom, but until then, we’ll have young performers trying to make it to Hollywood, and I’ll have several more chances to watch Jerry, George, and Elaine’s exploits in the Chinese Restaurant. I anticipate the wait for the return of the sitcom’s prominence to be about, oh, five, ten minutes. Let’s hope I don’t walk out from the long wait.