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Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nobody wants to hang out on TV anymore
Back in the day, you could turn on your television, tune to any number of channels and see a group of four to six beautiful and quirky friends lounging around, talking about their lives, sharing the details of their recent bad dates, complaining about unruly bosses and bonding over the latest antics of weird neighbors. Cheers, Friends, How I Met Your Mother and New Girl all followed this model. This was called hangout TV. It still exists today, but you don't see characters just congregating at a coffee shop or meeting for nightly drinks at the same watering hole quite like they used to. In the most prestigious and talked-about shows these days, many of which were nominated for multiple Emmys on Tuesday, they're solving problems at work (Severance, The Studio), scrambling to save lives (The Pitt, Grey's Anatomy), investigating crimes (Only Murders in the Building, Slow Horses) or getting into trouble on vacation (The White Lotus). Aside from a couple of new shows driven by the TikTok-famous personalities that star in them, like Overcompensating and Adults, which are well reviewed but not broadly watched, it seems like no one wants to hang out on TV anymore. How did a trend that seemed to rule the small screen seemingly disappear entirely? 'Nostalgia is a powerful force' Between 2015 and 2023, networks and streaming platforms were churning out high volumes of critically acclaimed shows. Now that the so-called Peak TV era is over and the number of original series made for adults has declined dramatically, viewers are relying on old standbys more than ever. According to the May 2025 trend report from audience data company Digital i, viewers are still drawn to nostalgic shows they know and love, like The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls and Friends. Bob Batchelor, a cultural historian and assistant communications professor at Coastal Carolina University, tells Yahoo that now 'streaming platforms prioritize proven comfort titles over investing in new, ensemble-based, lower-concept comedies that take time to build an audience." Batchelor explains that streaming platforms are risk-averse, so the fact that hangout shows take a while to find and create a bond with a loyal audience makes them a tougher sell. Even Seinfeld, the quintessential hangout series that proudly billed itself as a show about nothing, took a while to land. But once it did, it had legions of fans for life. Today it's easier for networks and streamers to just pay to license Seinfeld and let nostalgia viewers stream it endlessly than to find the Seinfeld of a new generation. "Nostalgia is a powerful force," he says. A relic of a different time We're not hanging out on TV, and we're not hanging out to watch it together either. Americans spend more time alone now compared with any other time in human history. The average time spent socializing has declined over the past decade. The quiet activity of TV-watching used to bring people together. Julie Ferris-Tillman, a communications expert, tells Yahoo that television once served as 'the family hearth.' 'We gathered as a family and watched TV by appointment viewing. Stations programmed based on family routines, [which] bore the best results for advertisers and audience targeting,' she says. 'Instead of representing our cultural prowess by talking about Thursday night's episode of Friends at the water cooler, now we share on our [social media] feeds those cultural moments that represent us … viewers don't need to watch together to hang out; they just need to prove they watch.' People aren't even hanging out in the way that used to be portrayed on TV either. Chris Hite, a filmmaker and professor at Alan Hancock College, tells Yahoo that 'shows like Friends and Cheers reflected a time of gregariousness in American society that may not return.' 'The unfortunate reality is that the No. 1 condition that made 'hanging out' possible in those shows — economy — no longer provides the proper conditions for it to occur,' Hite says. 'I still watch Friends regularly. It is and has been a tremendously funny show with great characters, but now I am more interested in noting all that was present in the show that has disappeared from the American landscape and the fabric of American society: the twin towers, the ease and affordability of travel, availability of employment options, live entertainment [and] affordable coffee.' The dominant millennial style of hanging out today looks more like a workplace comedy like The Office. The series is also a popular nostalgia-watch but is soon to have its own spin-off in September. Shows currently on the air like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Abbott Elementary, Tires and The Bear all technically fall into this category. Their characters are falling in love, getting into hijinks, navigating professional problems and finding their closest friends at work instead of home or a designated third place for hanging out. Shows — and their audiences — are multitasking There is an element of hanging out that is crucial to shows that technically fall into other genres too — especially shows that defy typical TV conventions. Rian Johnson created the mystery series Poker Face to subvert tropes left and right. Rather than a typical 'whodunnit,' it's a 'whydunnit' or 'howcatchem' that focuses on the motive behind a crime and how the suspect is caught rather than just who did it. Johnson tells Yahoo he cast Natasha Lyonne as the lead because the unconventional show needed someone 'who is not just a really good actor but is a presence on the screen that you just want to hang out with.' Each episode sees Lyonne dropped into a new setting with new costars and characters. She plays Charlie Cale, who has a knack for telling when people are lying, so each week we follow her sleuthing as we would the title character of Colombo. 'That's a really rare, unique thing, and I feel that Natasha is one of the few people on earth who has that … it's a hangout show, really,' Johnson says. 'The mystery is kind of second-tier to [audiences] wanting to hang out with Charlie Cale every week.' Poker Face might be the exception to the rule. Without lovable characters and nail-biting plot points driving each episode, would watching a true-to-its-2025-setting hangout show even be that much fun? In real life, people are on their phones and use social media too much, and that would look odd — or at least uninteresting — onscreen. Lori Bindig Yousman, a communications professor at Sacred Heart University, tells Yahoo that 'the characters of Friends or Seinfeld could sit around and have uninterrupted conversations because they didn't have distractions like their smartphones to pull them away from their conversations.' 'If those same sorts of scenes appeared in a show today, audiences wouldn't find their behavior realistic because they would expect the characters to be constantly texting, scrolling, liking or taking selfies just like we do in our real-life hangouts,' she says. We're probably on our phones while watching those shows too, Yousman says, which might also contribute to the popularity of nostalgic shows we've already seen. 'Audiences who are already familiar with these shows can easily watch them while multitasking because they already know the characters and the general storylines,' she says. It's mindless viewing, just like scrolling. Everyone's just hanging out online Though experts agree that the television landscape has shifted away from hangout shows, that doesn't mean people don't still crave the feeling of hanging out with a character. They've just taken those interactions and feelings online, instead of sitting in front of a TV screen. Roy Orecchio, a TV showrunner and associate film professor at Arizona State University, tells Yahoo there's actually 'more hangout content than has ever existed, but those hangouts are not happening on legacy broadcast or legacy cable television networks.' Since people now go online to see content tailored to them, they expect more niche content and a more interactive experience. Hangout TV still exists — it's just user-generated. Max Cutler, founder of content creation company PAVE Studios, tells Yahoo that 'hangout energy has migrated into the world of video podcasts' too. His goal is to help produce shows that feel like friend groups you can catch up with any time, tapping into the existing audiences that content creators already have. Those influencers know that YouTube, where they can upload podcasts and other kinds of video, is the best place to grow a huge audience. The platform is technically the biggest television distributor in the world, according to Nielsen data from April 2025. That means it's bigger than Disney, Netflix, Paramount and any other network or streaming service you could think of. The way people consume entertainment has clearly shifted, and so has the way people hang out — of course hangout TV is part of that. Cutler says that online creators have been able to match the production schedules of traditional TV while giving people what they truly want these days: authenticity. That allows for them to build the type of emotional connection and community that traditional television shows just can't. People are resistant to things that feel manufactured, even if that has traditionally meant that they are well-produced. Entertainment is always evolving But don't give up on the hangout show altogether. Tim Stevens, a writer for the office of marketing and communications at Connecticut College, tells Yahoo that the decline of hangout TV could just be part of the 'cycle and churn of TV.' 'For a time, serialized dramas ruled. Then, perhaps, procedurals, or supernatural shows or sitcoms. Some of this is just the natural process of peaks and valleys,' he says. 'Apps like TikTok are filled with scenes and edited pieces showcasing the best jokes or characters from hangout shows past and present. Some accounts exist purely to provide this content.' People still want to hang out with their favorite characters; they just want to do it on their own terms. It's a problem too modern to be solved on something so antiquated as a television screen. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nobody wants to hang out on TV anymore
Back in the day, you could turn on your television, tune to any number of channels and see a group of four to six beautiful and quirky friends lounging around, talking about their lives, sharing the details of their recent bad dates, complaining about unruly bosses and bonding over the latest antics of weird neighbors. Cheers, Friends, How I Met Your Mother and New Girl all followed this model. This was called hangout TV. It still exists today, but you don't see characters just congregating at a coffee shop or meeting for nightly drinks at the same watering hole quite like they used to. In the most prestigious and talked-about shows these days, many of which were nominated for multiple Emmys on Tuesday, they're solving problems at work (Severance, The Studio), scrambling to save lives (The Pitt, Grey's Anatomy), investigating crimes (Only Murders in the Building, Slow Horses) or getting into trouble on vacation (The White Lotus). Aside from a couple of new shows driven by the TikTok-famous personalities that star in them, like Overcompensating and Adults, which are well reviewed but not broadly watched, it seems like no one wants to hang out on TV anymore. How did a trend that seemed to rule the small screen seemingly disappear entirely? Between 2015 and 2023, networks and streaming platforms were churning out high volumes of critically acclaimed shows. Now that the so-called Peak TV era is over and the number of original series made for adults has declined dramatically, viewers are relying on old standbys more than ever. According to the May 2025 trend report from audience data company Digital i, viewers are still drawn to nostalgic shows they know and love, like The Big Bang Theory, Gilmore Girls and Friends. Bob Batchelor, a cultural historian and assistant communications professor at Coastal Carolina University, tells Yahoo that now 'streaming platforms prioritize proven comfort titles over investing in new, ensemble-based, lower-concept comedies that take time to build an audience." Batchelor explains that streaming platforms are risk-averse, so the fact that hangout shows take a while to find and create a bond with a loyal audience makes them a tougher sell. Even Seinfeld, the quintessential hangout series that proudly billed itself as a show about nothing, took a while to land. But once it did, it had legions of fans for life. Today it's easier for networks and streamers to just pay to license Seinfeld and let nostalgia viewers stream it endlessly than to find the Seinfeld of a new generation. "Nostalgia is a powerful force," he says. We're not hanging out on TV, and we're not hanging out to watch it together either. Americans spend more time alone now compared with any other time in human history. The average time spent socializing has declined over the past decade. The quiet activity of TV-watching used to bring people together. Julie Ferris-Tillman, a communications expert, tells Yahoo that television once served as 'the family hearth.' 'We gathered as a family and watched TV by appointment viewing. Stations programmed based on family routines, [which] bore the best results for advertisers and audience targeting,' she says. 'Instead of representing our cultural prowess by talking about Thursday night's episode of Friends at the water cooler, now we share on our [social media] feeds those cultural moments that represent us … viewers don't need to watch together to hang out; they just need to prove they watch.' People aren't even hanging out in the way that used to be portrayed on TV either. Chris Hite, a filmmaker and professor at Alan Hancock College, tells Yahoo that 'shows like Friends and Cheers reflected a time of gregariousness in American society that may not return.' 'The unfortunate reality is that the No. 1 condition that made 'hanging out' possible in those shows — economy — no longer provides the proper conditions for it to occur,' Hite says. 'I still watch Friends regularly. It is and has been a tremendously funny show with great characters, but now I am more interested in noting all that was present in the show that has disappeared from the American landscape and the fabric of American society: the twin towers, the ease and affordability of travel, availability of employment options, live entertainment [and] affordable coffee.' The dominant millennial style of hanging out today looks more like a workplace comedy like The Office. The series is also a popular nostalgia-watch but is soon to have its own spin-off in September. Shows currently on the air like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Abbott Elementary, Tires and The Bear all technically fall into this category. Their characters are falling in love, getting into hijinks, navigating professional problems and finding their closest friends at work instead of home or a designated third place for hanging out. There is an element of hanging out that is crucial to shows that technically fall into other genres too — especially shows that defy typical TV conventions. Rian Johnson created the mystery series Poker Face to subvert tropes left and right. Rather than a typical 'whodunnit,' it's a 'whydunnit' or 'howcatchem' that focuses on the motive behind a crime and how the suspect is caught rather than just who did it. Johnson tells Yahoo he cast Natasha Lyonne as the lead because the unconventional show needed someone 'who is not just a really good actor but is a presence on the screen that you just want to hang out with.' Each episode sees Lyonne dropped into a new setting with new costars and characters. She plays Charlie Cale, who has a knack for telling when people are lying, so each week we follow her sleuthing as we would the title character of Colombo. 'That's a really rare, unique thing, and I feel that Natasha is one of the few people on earth who has that … it's a hangout show, really,' Johnson says. 'The mystery is kind of second-tier to [audiences] wanting to hang out with Charlie Cale every week.' Poker Face might be the exception to the rule. Without lovable characters and nail-biting plot points driving each episode, would watching a true-to-its-2025-setting hangout show even be that much fun? In real life, people are on their phones and use social media too much, and that would look odd — or at least uninteresting — onscreen. Lori Bindig Yousman, a communications professor at Sacred Heart University, tells Yahoo that 'the characters of Friends or Seinfeld could sit around and have uninterrupted conversations because they didn't have distractions like their smartphones to pull them away from their conversations.' 'If those same sorts of scenes appeared in a show today, audiences wouldn't find their behavior realistic because they would expect the characters to be constantly texting, scrolling, liking or taking selfies just like we do in our real-life hangouts,' she says. We're probably on our phones while watching those shows too, Yousman says, which might also contribute to the popularity of nostalgic shows we've already seen. 'Audiences who are already familiar with these shows can easily watch them while multitasking because they already know the characters and the general storylines,' she says. It's mindless viewing, just like scrolling. Though experts agree that the television landscape has shifted away from hangout shows, that doesn't mean people don't still crave the feeling of hanging out with a character. They've just taken those interactions and feelings online, instead of sitting in front of a TV screen. Roy Orecchio, a TV showrunner and associate film professor at Arizona State University, tells Yahoo there's actually 'more hangout content than has ever existed, but those hangouts are not happening on legacy broadcast or legacy cable television networks.' Since people now go online to see content tailored to them, they expect more niche content and a more interactive experience. Hangout TV still exists — it's just user-generated. Max Cutler, founder of content creation company PAVE Studios, tells Yahoo that 'hangout energy has migrated into the world of video podcasts' too. His goal is to help produce shows that feel like friend groups you can catch up with any time, tapping into the existing audiences that content creators already have. Those influencers know that YouTube, where they can upload podcasts and other kinds of video, is the best place to grow a huge audience. The platform is technically the biggest television distributor in the world, according to Nielsen data from April 2025. That means it's bigger than Disney, Netflix, Paramount and any other network or streaming service you could think of. The way people consume entertainment has clearly shifted, and so has the way people hang out — of course hangout TV is part of that. Cutler says that online creators have been able to match the production schedules of traditional TV while giving people what they truly want these days: authenticity. That allows for them to build the type of emotional connection and community that traditional television shows just can't. People are resistant to things that feel manufactured, even if that has traditionally meant that they are well-produced. But don't give up on the hangout show altogether. Tim Stevens, a writer for the office of marketing and communications at Connecticut College, tells Yahoo that the decline of hangout TV could just be part of the 'cycle and churn of TV.' 'For a time, serialized dramas ruled. Then, perhaps, procedurals, or supernatural shows or sitcoms. Some of this is just the natural process of peaks and valleys,' he says. 'Apps like TikTok are filled with scenes and edited pieces showcasing the best jokes or characters from hangout shows past and present. Some accounts exist purely to provide this content.' People still want to hang out with their favorite characters; they just want to do it on their own terms. It's a problem too modern to be solved on something so antiquated as a television screen.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gaumont TV President Talks End of Peak TV, Warns: 'If We Don't Own the IP, We Lose Our Identity'
'Everything is very challenging right now. We have had 10 years which were wonderful in France and all over Europe.' That is how Gaumont Television president and producer Isabelle Degeorges described the state of the TV sector after the end of Peak TV during a keynote appearance at the Conecta Fiction & Entertainment industry gathering in Cuenca, Spain. 'There was a period when anything was possible. All streamers wanted to come to France and wanted to commission in France,' she highlighted. But COVID and the end of peak TV mean that everyone must now operate under a new normal. More from The Hollywood Reporter Eurovision Drama and 'The Nameless': Movistar Plus+ Exec Touts Focus on Event Programming Lewis Hamilton Signed Off on Brad Pitt and Damson Idris' Driving in 'F1: The Movie' In Spain, Warner Exec Explains the HBO Max Rebrand But Degeorges says it's all about the right attitude to tackle challenges. 'We just have to find that it's normal,' she argued. 'I mean, it is normal. We know that all over the world, it's normal to fight, it's normal to adapt, it's normal to create new shows.' With Netflix hit series Lupin recently getting renewed for season 4, Degeorges shared the state of production. 'We are shooting right now, and it will arrive on screen next year,' she told the Conecta audience without sharing any insights into the storylines or other creative details. Owning strong intellectual property has been a key focus for producers, and Gaumont isn't any different in that regard in the age of global streamers. France's rules requiring U.S. and global streamers to invest a minimum of 20 percent of their net French revenue in European works is key here, Degeorges emphasized. 'If we don't own the IP, we lose our identity,' she said. 'If we don't own the IP, my feeling is that everything belongs to the U.S., and at the end, it is their identity.' Speaking of IP, the executive on Tuesday also touted such upcoming projects as In the Shadow of the Forest, a thriller series for Apple TV+ starring Benoît Magimel and Mélanie Laurent for Apple TV+, and the ninth season of hit procedural The Art of Crime for France Télévisions that Gaumont has sold to more than 60 countries. Degeorges also used her Conecta keynote to argue in favor of the regulation of artificial intelligence, calling for rules that ensure that AI companies properly pay creators rather than use their works for free to train their models. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
RTÉ News
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
From 30 Rock to Deadwood: 6 US TV classics to binge on RTÉ player
Just when you think you've watched everything, it might be time to go back and discover (or rediscover) some classic U.S. telly via RTÉ Player - but where to begin? Here are five of our favourites, currently available to binge in their entirety... 30 Rock Liz Lemon, head writer of the sketch-comedy show TGS with Tracy Jordan, must deal with an arrogant boss and a crazy star while trying to run a successful television show without losing her mind... Tina Fey's whipsmart classic is often ranked among the greatest (and most eminently quotable) US sitcoms of all times, and rightfully so; her banter with co-star Alec Baldwin is for the ages - watch all seven seasons here. Deadwood People flee to Deadwood, South Dakota, with the dream of getting rich. However, not everyone can survive the chaos and lawlessness of the town... One of the cornerstones of the modern age of Peak TV, David Milch's western epic boasts one of the greatest anti-heroes of them all, Ian McShane's despicable (and eminently quoatable) Al Swearengen - watch all three seasons here. The West Wing Martin Sheen stars as U.S. President Jed Bartlett in Aaron Sorkin's seminal political drama, documenting the triumphs and travails of White House senior staff - 25 years on, it's a snapshot of a radically different era in U.S. politics, anchored by one of the great ensemble casts - watch all seven seasons here The Good Fight First came The Good Wife, then came this spin-off starring theincomparable Christine as Good Wife scene-stealer Diane Lockhart, a high-flying lawyer scammed out of her life savings and forced to start afresh... It's a choice legal drama, one unafraid to tackle the madness of modern American politics, with a knockout lineup of guest stars (including Matthew Perry's last great performance - watch all six seasons here Frasier One of the few TV spin-offs that holds its own against the original, Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) leaves the bar at Cheers and moves back to his hometown of Seattle, where he lives with his father (the late, great John Mahoney), works as a radio psychiatrist and blunders his way through an endless number of sublimely farcial scenarios - for a masterclass in comedy, watch all 11 seasons here Mad Men In 1960s New York City, an ad agency mixes cutthroat business and social ambition with glamorous allure... Often found vying for the top spot in lists of the Greatest TV Show Of All Time, this gives us another unforgettable anti-hero, Jon Hamm's inscrutable Don Draper, and totally lands the ending, to boot - watch all seven seasons here
Miami Herald
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
‘Sesame Street,' facing crisis, signs new deal with Netflix
After many difficult months, 'Sesame Street' has a moment to celebrate. 'Sesame Street,' the 56-year-old institution of children's television, has signed a new distribution deal with Netflix, as well as a separate deal with PBS, the show announced Monday. That means new episodes of 'Sesame Street' will now be available to the more than 300 million subscribers of Netflix, giving the program significantly more reach than in the past. New episodes will also be available on PBS the day they are released on Netflix, the first time in roughly a decade that the public broadcaster will have access to brand-new 'Sesame Street' content. The new agreements will go into effect later this year. The deal is a much-needed shot in the arm for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces 'Sesame Street' and has been in the throes of a financial crisis. Sesame Workshop laid off about 20% of its staff this year after several grants dried up, and, more significantly, it confronted a significant loss in revenue with the expiration of its current distribution deal, a lucrative contract with HBO. Since 2015, HBO has paid Sesame Workshop $30 million to $35 million a year for new episodes of 'Sesame Street,' The New York Times reported. But Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO's parent company, let that deal expire as it turns away from children's content and faces financial challenges of its own. It was not immediately clear how much Netflix paid to distribute the show. But Sesame Workshop executives have warned employees for months that any new distribution agreements would bring in less revenue than the old HBO deal. In a note to staff, Sherrie Westin, CEO of Sesame Workshop, said it was 'certainly worth celebrating' that the show would be available in many more households. But, she added, 'the economics of these agreements are vastly different than those of the past, given the drastic market and media landscape shifts in recent years.' The Netflix and PBS pact ends an extended odyssey. About a year ago, Sesame Workshop executives had anticipated finding a new distribution partner within a few months, and they entered discussions with all of the biggest players, including Netflix, YouTube, Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal. But it quickly became apparent that a deal would be much harder to come by. A big part of the problem was the sudden death of 'Peak TV,' when media companies drastically increased their spending on programming to draw streaming subscribers. Many media companies have now reduced their investments in producing or licensing new shows as they try to wring out profits from their streaming services. Warner Bros. Discovery dropped the $30 million to $35 million deal that it made with Sesame Workshop at the height of Peak TV and instead signed a $6 million-a-year deal for back library episodes of the show last year. Between the reduced revenue and the Trump administration's abrupt cancellation of some grants, Sesame Workshop found itself in a deep financial crisis. As the organization made cuts, its administrative staff successfully unionized. 'Sesame Street' also confronts a more competitive children's television landscape than when it reached the HBO deal. According to an internal Sesame Workshop study reviewed by the Times, 'Sesame Street' ranks below many other children's shows in overall engagement, including 'Bluey,' 'PAW Patrol,' 'Peppa Pig,' 'Baby Shark,' 'Cocomelon' and 'Blippi.' YouTube is also awash in children's content, including 'Ms. Rachel,' a hit show that Netflix began licensing last year. 'Ms. Rachel' has become a standout series on Netflix in just a matter of months. Given all of the competition, 'Sesame Street' will unveil a revamped show later this year, with fewer segments and more animation. The new deal will give 'Sesame Street' greater reach than it had under the HBO deal. Netflix has more than 300 million subscribers, while Max, soon to be renamed HBO Max, has about 122 million. Netflix will get access to new episodes of the reimagined 56th season, which is in production, as well as 90 hours of library episodes. The company also said it would be able to develop games for 'Sesame Street.' Netflix is doubling down on children's content, which the company has said accounts for 15% of viewing on the service. On Monday, the streaming company announced the release of a new game dedicated to 'Peppa Pig.' A separate deal with PBS will give the public broadcaster and its digital channels access to episodes the day they are released on Netflix. Under the HBO deal for the past decade, PBS could release new episodes only many months after they first appeared on cable or streaming. 'I want to most sincerely thank every Sesame team member who worked tirelessly for so long to finalize these agreements,' Westin told staff members Monday. She added: 'It wasn't easy.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
