We don't mean to suggest that viewers are no longer finding laughter in newer comedies, but data in our latest trend report certainly points to audiences favouring older comedy titles to shows that launched more recently.
Nostalgia on Demand, which you can read in full HERE, explores the rising viewing to older shows on Disney+, Prime Video and Netflix in the U.S. in H1 2025.
The data makes clear the immense value of licensed content to these global streamers, both for new audiences to discover or for existing fans to reconnect with old favourites - something we explored earlier in the year.
But it isn’t purely nostalgia that is driving audiences to watch this content – it appears that, at least in the U.S., subscribers are choosing to spend more of their viewing time watching classic comedy than newer laughs.
As the above data shows, across the three streaming services during this sixth-month period, 37% of viewing time to content that launched before 2020, was to comedy. For titles that launched in 2020 or after, only 21% of viewing time was to comedy, indicating a rather large (16%) preference for spending time on older comedy titles.
The high 20+ episode counts of the multi-season comedy shows that originated on network television during the early 2000s and before undoubtedly has a role to play. These titles, many of which remain comedy touchstones in the U.S., make for ideal binge viewing and have a lot of catalogue with which to fill up viewing hours. More recently launched shows typically have fewer episodes per season.
And as the chart above shows, the share of viewing to pre-2020 drama was also 37%, so it isn’t just comedy taking subscribers deeper into the content library,. Viewing share to this genre for titles first launched in 2020 onwards did not drop by much, but there was a notable rise for documentaries, with the 12% share to more recent titles more than double that of those released before 2020.
Perhaps U.S. audiences like old jokes and new facts.
Download Nostalgia on Demand in full HERE
.jpg)
