Sitcoms In Trouble?

In a recent episode of "How I Met Your Mother," Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) proposes that you should be allowed to dump your date the second you don't think it will work out, even if you've only gotten acquainted with your date for a couple of minutes. He calls it the "lemon law," after laws that give people protection for their defective new cars. "It's gonna be a thing!" Barney declares.

According to the Nielsen ratings, anyway, "How I Met Your Mother" is not gonna be a thing. Neither is any sitcom not named "Two and a Half Men," for that matter. Again, according to recent Nielsen surveys, the aforementioned Charlie Sheen show is the only sitcom that has regularly made it into the weekly top twenty. In fact, it may be the only sitcom of late that's made into into the weekly top twenty at all, though it's hard to fathom why such a broad, exaggerated show would do that well.

The bigger issue is the underperformance of every other sitcom on broadcast television these days. It's not that some of the newer sitcoms on the air aren't hits. They are, relatively speaking; "My Name Is Earl" is the biggest hit freshman sitcom this year, in fact. It's just not as big in the ratings as many reality shows or scripted dramas have been. With more genres in television, and more choices of channels thanks to cable and satellite TV, it's simply not possible to attract viewers the way a show like "I Love Lucy" once did fifty years ago. And truth be told, most sitcoms use the same three-camera formula Desi Arnaz pioneered in the fifties, so even the best of them seem worn at times. Those that break the formula with interesting editing or the absence of a laugh track get little chance to prove their ideas when sponsors and networks demand an immediate payback. Maybe the public simply doesn't want new ways of presenting situation comedy, as Fox's cancellation of "Arrested Development" after three seasons suggests. Maybe they just want a sitcom they can be comfortable with - though, I can hardly believe "Two And a Half Men" is seen as anything like comfort food.

Then again, maybe the sitcom genre has become a mostly spent force. Like rock and roll, it will likely still be around, but it also likely will have a much smaller audience and be less of an influence on popular culture. Maybe "How I Met Your Mother" is still going to be a thing. But if so, it's gonna be a small thing.