Rom-Coms are disrupting TV Again But That Has Not Always Been The Case
Romantic Comedies have dominated the cultural conversations in the better part of the '90s and the early 2000s. Their popularity is due to their ability to bring joy, produce aspirational stories about love, and create a sense of inconsequential escapism. It's true, around that era, Rom-Coms were hefty competitors. But in the mid-2000s, as consumer demand shifted to other genres, the romantic comedy genre started to lose market share to broader-appeal comedies, adventure, and action-packed content.
It felt like romantic comedies — at least the big-budget Hollywood kind — finally might have died in the last two decades. But in more recent years, it's come roaring back, precisely thanks to three movies that made waves with audiences: the big-screen hit with multi-cultural leads in the box-office hit films such as Crazy Rich Asians and Netflix’s sensation To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
There have been hundreds of articles around the rise and fall of rom-coms on the big screen, but it becomes more difficult to trace how they've performed on the small screen. So using 30 years of data, I set out to analyze how they fared television, and subsequently, how they've evolved from prudish sitcoms in broadcast television to complex relationship stories in this new streaming era.
Early & Late 1990's
The Prude and shallow Era
Family-friendly sitcoms are dominating the entertainment industry, targeting a broader appeal of the US-population. Generally, the on-screen depictions of sexual acts are inexistent though we do see sexual jokes & innuendos appear in bits now and then. It's also important to note that TV shows are not explicitly marketed as rom coms around that time. Instead, they are still perceived as standard sitcoms with episode-specific plot-lines heavily focused on relationships, break-ups, dating & will-they/won't they story arcs.
Most sitcoms are still filmed in front of live audiences, and this period is heavily leaning on cast-ensemble versus single-cast Led protagonist due to their popularity with audiences. Characters in sitcoms at the time are young adults and middle-aged heterosexual men and women with the clear intention to appeal to a broad audience range.
Despite the popularity of sitcoms with general audiences, one show disrupted on-screen depictions of relationships and dating ideas: Sex and the City. From season 2 to season 5, Sex & the City was such a success that it saw a TV rating increase of 78% amongst women 18-35. It was ahead of its time.
Early & mid-2000's
Rom-Com Fatigue and Fall from Grace
In the early 2000s, seeing the success of Sex & The City, broadcast networks were willing to green-light shows similar to Sex and the City in how it incorporated dating, sex and relationships. Though Romantic Comedies were still prevalent in theaters, that was not the case for broadcast television. Audiences grew tired of the romantic comedy, likely due to the evolving perception of gender politics & attitude towards heteronormativity and the rom-com genre's general whiteness.
Rapidly changing audiences no longer reflected the evolving attitudes and demographics of target audiences & consequently, studios began to take note and change course. Rom-Coms underwent a brutal stage on linear television: 40% of ordered shows were getting canceled after their first or second seasons.
A considerable contribution to the fall of sitcom rom-coms can be attributed to the rise of reality television. Reality dating shows are exploding, with audiences preferring non-scripted to scripted shows: The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila.
Lastly, there was a trend where networks produced Single Female-Led focus rom-coms as opposed to what we’ve seen in the past with multi-cast led shows. These new batches of women-led shows did not perform well in most broadcast networks given they only appealed to a lower portion of their audience: women age 30-55. Subsequently, shows like The Ex-List, The Starter Wife, and Love Bites were all canceled after their freshmen season due to low ratings. Drop-Dead Diva, which aired on lifetime, a network targeting that specific demographic of middle-aged women.
Early 2010's
From Low-Budget Single-Cam to High Production Shows
In the early 2010s, the Single-Camera Romcom format lost its dominance in television. For the big networks, there’s a pronounced difficulty in creating romantic comedies. As such, they specifically are considered a low priority to Network and Studio execs due to decreasing box office performance. Even though the Single-Camera Romcom format is dissipating, there is still some appetite for romantic Stories.
They have to be authentic enough to convince, but broad enough to attract a sizable audience in the first place.
For these reasons, networks are still green-lighting a few projects but nonetheless, they get more aggressive with cancelations - at times, canceling them before the entire seasons air on Television.
Mid and Late 2010’s
The Romantically Driven era
We've entered into a new era for romantic comedy shows, but this change goes beyond a shift in format; it is a complete transformation in how head writers tell these stories. TV Shows are now introducing relationships/romance but are shifting away from being plot-driven to character-driven. Overall, characters have more complex story arcs; Leads and supporting characters are becoming more multi-dimensional, and audiences are taking notice. We see less focus on dating superficially - though that still exists - and more emphasis on longer-lasting relationships.
To put it into context, this is where streaming services are expanding and becoming aggressive competitors in terms of original content. For instance, Netflix is premiering Love and Aziz Ansari’s Masters of None, Amazon Prime green-lit Catastrophe - all shows are critically-acclaimed. With this newfound success, the entire industry: Blockbuster hits, Broadcast television are forced to disrupt in storytelling, this is also when we see an increase in production value.
Streaming services are ordering the majority of these new high production romantically-driven shows but they are also licensing high performing romcoms from broadcasting networks. The CW especially sees success with more "innovative" sitcom formats: Jane the Virgin is a Telenovela Parody, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a musical rom-com, and as such Netflix licenses these shows for its own platform, expanding its reach and revitalizing the rom-com genre once more.
Early 2020's
romantic comedies in the streaming wars
An increasingly mindful young people consuming TV has led to an attempt to cast a more multi-cultural cast telling stories beyond heteronormativity. Creators have creative leeway and fewer barriers than linear TV. There is also a return to One (or dual) lead-character rather than over-relying on cast ensemble shows to see success.
We saw IPs get with a more serious undertone; main characters are more grounded, less zany, and almost no pressure to hit Multi-Cam comedic beat. The Revolving Serial Date Trope disappears completely with stories focusing on romantic relationships between characters for a more extended period.
Hollywood has made progress towards diversity, but the road is long. As of 2021, though shows casted more people of color as leads, most TV shows are still casting/writing the aspirational lover as predominately white characters. The ideal at least on tv still remains whiteness.
More than any other genre, the Romcom in television evolved with the appetite of shifting demographics. In the past 5 years, we’ve seen more disruption in the rom-com space than we’ve seen in the last 30 decades. Tropes like Love triangles, break-up revenge arcs are still heavily used but one thing is certain: The new TV rom-com can’t be turned into a trend. Originality is its very essence. Considering our basic conception of the romantic comedy, that’s an invigorating notion worth celebrating.
