Hi, {{first_name | friend}}! Despite the countless new shows and movies streaming services churn out every month, audiences still spend an enormous amount of time watching old favorites. In 2023, Nielsen found that 60% of U.S. streaming time was spent on shows that originally aired on traditional television. And the genre that disproportionately dominates is the classic sitcom—juggernauts like Friends, Seinfeld, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and of course, The Office. 

After seeing the recent news that 1) Seinfeld will stay on Netflix for five more years and 2) Hulu canceled Mindy Kaling’s new Gen Z sitcom, I started thinking: Why is Hollywood so bad at making modern sitcoms? Sure, there are a few diamonds in the rough like Abbott Elementary and What We Do in the Shadows, but by and large, the new ones stink!

Keep reading for my breakdown of why new sitcoms don’t make us laugh the way the classics do and why they seemingly all get canceled after a season or two. Plus, my curated list of 6 hilarious new sitcoms that are actually worth watching.

Every fall, as the weather turns and cozy season begins, viewers are naturally drawn to characters and worlds they’re familiar with. For me, it’s The Office. The Office and I have been through so much together. It was the first series I watched every episode of, it’s the show my friends and I quote every week, and it was the background noise in my college dorm room as I ate lunch after class. That level of passion for a show can only be established through hundreds of episodes and years of viewership. Modern sitcoms simply haven’t existed long enough to fill that comfort-viewing space for people, and most of them get cancelled before they ever get the chance to develop a loyal fanbase.

Most of the classic sitcoms consistently had seasons with 20-25 episodes. Conversely, most failed modern sitcoms (How I Met Your Father, Unstable, Space Force) had only 8-10 episodes in their first season. Ten 25-minute episodes is simply not enough time for the writers and cast to find a rhythm. You can’t flesh out nuanced, funny characters in four total hours on screentime. Plus, the increasingly common trend of making viewers wait two to three years between seasons doesn’t help!

For a sitcom to thrive, it needs at least 15 episodes in the first season, a consistent annual release cadence, and a runway of at least a few seasons before getting axed. How can streamers expect viewers to fall in love with a new series if it gets canceled right when it’s starting to find its footing? Although many of us look back on The Office with rose-tinted glasses, the first season is quite rough. What a shame it would’ve been if NBC took it behind the barn after Season 1!

What viewers find funny has changed dramatically over the last two decades. Internet culture, Gen Z’s differing worldviews, and TikTok brainrot has all contributed to a fundamental shift in what makes audiences laugh. The problem is that the producers and executives making the decisions on which types of new sitcoms get created are often out-of-touch.

And ever since that one video went viral showcasing how awkward and unfunny The Big Bang Theory is with no laugh track, audiences have been less receptive to that type of comedy. Streamers can no longer rely on a laugh track to psychologically trick the viewer into believing that what they’re watching is actually funny when it’s not (I really dislike The Big Bang Theory, if you couldn’t tell).

Don’t get me wrong, there are still some modern sitcoms that are laugh-out-loud funny (Abbott Elementary, Tires) but for every one gem, there are three to five stinkers. It ultimately comes down to whether or not the person creating the series is tapped into the cultural zeitgeist and what streaming audiences find funny in 2026.

This idea is more of a theory of mine than a well-researched, verifiable point: I think audiences have less patience to stick with a comedy than any other genre. With dramas, mysteries, thrillers, and romances, there’s often satisfaction in a slow-burn story that takes several episodes to develop. With a comedy, if it isn’t making you laugh in the first episode, why keep watching? There are so many (often funnier) content creators that you can watch instead of an “eh” comedy that, at best, makes you breathe a little harder out of your nose.

Since this edition of Worth the Watch was particularly critical of the current state of Hollywood, I’d like to end by sharing some modern sitcoms that are actually great! Below are my top 6 new(ish) sitcoms that raise the bar and consistently make audiences laugh.

John Farrar went to film school, spent a few years as an editor, then accidentally built an audience online by sharing his passion for cinema. He covers film and TV for Pix Media, interviews the people behind some of your favorite shows and movies, and has never once successfully talked himself out of buying a movie ticket.

Currently watching: Game of Thrones