TV Show Reboots. Why so many?
Have you ever wondered why producers brought back shows such as Frasier, Hawaii 5-O, and 90210? Does it seem like writers have been unable to produce new shows that people want to watch? Here I discuss the purpose of TV and the psychological aspect that has aided the reboot phenomena.
Television, TV for short, is designed to entertain. Whether it be a sports game, a game show, or sitcom, TV is designed to engage and entertain. The more people that watch a show, the more money the broadcasting company (NBC, ABC, CBS) makes. The broadcasting companies charge more for commercial advertising space during times/shows that draw a bigger audience. A good example is the Super Bowl. The game draws a huge audience, so commercial time is expensive during the game. It is advantageous for broadcasting companies to have popular engaging entertainment on their networks to draw high income.
Reboots are different than remakes. A reboot actually owns rights to the original sitcom, rewriting to encompass more recent concepts. A remake targets more of the original characters, story, and premise. Current reboots and remakes seem to be more popular by tapping into the past and bridging it with recent concepts.
Viewer age plays a role in reboots. Recent eMarketer research shows, in descending order, the daily average of TV viewing based on generation: Baby Boomers (5 hours), Gen X (3 hours), Millennials (1.5 hours), Gen Z (less than one). Baby boomers are also the least likely to stream, as Gen Z is the most likely to stream. Shows on the traditional linear broadcasting channels are going to cater to those who demographically watch them the most.
Writers and producers want to entertain and leave their audience with a positive feeling. If the audience has a good affect after watching a show, the likelihood of them watching the show again is high. The psychological phenomena writers and producers want to elicit is called nostalgia. Although nostalgia is currently thought of as a positive emotion, it wasn’t always considered good.
Nostalgia was first coined by Johannes Hofer in 1688 as similar to ‘homesickness.’ Up until the 1950s, nostalgia was considered a negative emotion. Post World War II the idea of nostalgia started to change. Thinking of life before the war played an essential role in the recuperation and postwar development. Despite new research, the positive adaptation of nostalgia was not adapted until the early 2000s. Thus, utilizing nostalgia to elicit positive emotion during TV viewing is a recent idea.
Current research defines nostalgia as, “a sentimental longing for the past.” Socially speaking, it is positive to think about when we were younger. Having more fun, youthful looks, high energy, and easier times is desired in our culture. We often don’t realize that any program that elicits us to think about when we were younger, nostalgia, we also desire. People benefit from the dimensions of nostalgic thought brought on by TV programming reboots from the past.
Past show reboots bolster positive affect and well-bring through nostalgia. Positive affect refers to the experience of positive expression and emotions. The filtered down definition of psychological well-being is that life is going well, you are feeling good, and functioning effectively. It would be in a writer’s, producer’s, and network’s best interest to air a program that makes people feel good.
Catering to the Baby Boomer and Gen Xers, the biggest TV watchers, by bringing back shows from the 70s, 80s, and 90s has brought lucrative results. Who wouldn’t want to elicit nostalgia? It seems to add good aspects to life. Although this wonderful phenomenon adds positivity to life, broadcasting companies just want to make money. It is just a way the writers, producers, and networks use psychology for their benefit.
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