Sitcoms have been a popular form of television for decades. There have been some iconic shows over that time like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Office, Boy Meets World, That’s 70s show and many others as well. But you may have noticed that all the shows I mentioned are a bit older. This got me wondering, are sitcoms on the verge of fading out of existence?

The reason I wonder about this is because there aren’t really any popular sitcoms nowadays. I should also clarify that I am only referring to real-life sitcoms and not cartoon ones as that is a whole different thing in my opinion. So why don’t we go over exactly why sitcoms may be a thing of the past?

It seems that nowadays sitcoms don’t sell as well as they used to. Take How I Met Your Father for example. This show is a spinoff of How I Met Your Mother which was a popular sitcom from the mid-2000s to the mid-2010s. You would think a spinoff of the show would do well, but it hasn’t done nearly as well as How I Met Your Mother did. Part of the reason for that could just be the market for these kinds of shows isn’t what it used to be and people are watching different types of shows instead. Either that or people are watching shows that are similar to sitcoms but a bit different.

Take Ted Lasso as an example of a show that is a bit similar to sitcoms but doesn’t follow the sitcom formula. Sitcoms are centered around making jokes and sometimes they’ll have an audience laughing as well. In most sitcoms, there is usually a joke or something funny roughly every ten to twenty seconds or so. Whereas a show like Ted Lasso has jokes, but it’s timed within the story they are telling and not forced which is what sitcoms can sometimes do.

So if you were to ask me if sitcoms are dying, I would say they are. And the reason why I think that is because the formula of sitcoms where they have a joke roughly every ten to twenty seconds, if not less, has gotten a bit stale after a while. It makes these shows quite predictable and can sometimes take away from the story if they try to force a joke. Shows like Ted Lasso has found a good formula for blending comedy with storytelling while also keeping the audience interested.

Sitcoms have had a great run, but it seems as though their time is over. But that is just my opinion. What are your thoughts on sitcoms? Are they dying or do you think they are still very much alive?