Breathing new life into old shows
Hulu, Netflix spur revival of interest, even among youth
Jessica Mata wasn’t even a year old when “The Golden Girls” ended its broadcast run on NBC in 1992.
But this summer, she has been captivated by Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia and Rose, the Florida senior-citizen housemates of “The Golden Girls.” Mata watches at least four episodes a day of the sitcom, which joined streaming service Hulu’s programming offerings earlier this year. She views them on her phone or her laptop during breaks between her college classes.
“I know ‘Game of Thrones’ is all the rage — and I watch it too, sometimes — but it doesn’t have me hooked like ‘Golden Girls,’ ” said the 25-year-old from Houston. “I’m on my third round of watching the series right now.”
Viewers like Mata are discovering reruns of network shows not by flipping through TV channels but on streaming devices such as Hulu and Netflix. These digital platforms are doing something unexpected: They are creating new audiences for old TV shows.
At a time when television is booming with more than 450 original series in pro- duction this year, viewers have a multi- tude of options.
But shows such as HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and NBC’s family drama “This Is Us” also are competing for fans’ attention with such well-worn fare as “The Golden Girls,” “Full House,” and the political drama “The West Wing,” which debuted when Bill Clinton occupied the White House.
Making new money from old titles is a time-honored tradition in Hollywood, and studios owned by CBS, Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. have been digging through their libraries to find shows that are primed for a comeback.
Amid the chatter about the so-called death of traditional television, studio executives have found ways to capitalize on the digital disruption that has prompted audiences to migrate to streaming platforms, binge-watch entire seasons, and flee traditional channels to avoid 30second commercials.
At first, streaming service executives scoffed at the notion of putting dated shows (think shoulder pads, bell-bottom pants and boat-sized sedans) on their new media platforms. But they gave it a try to pad their programming shelves and were surprised by the strong performance of such shows as “Full House,” “Friends,” and “Gilmore Girls.”
Netflix, Amazon.com and others do not release audience figures. But they have stepped up orders of older series and, in some cases, revived programs that had been canceled by networks, including “Arrested Development” and “Gilmore Girls,” by ordering fresh episodes.
The strategy is paying off because the lighter, often effortless shows can counterbalance the current class of complex dramas wrought with tension.
“Most people also want TV to be entertaining and not feel like work,” said Lisa Holme, Hulu’s vice president of content acquisition. “Nostalgia programming is (like) comfort food.”
ABC’s publicity team dubbed it “Timeless TV.” And it’s not limited to shows that are no longer on the air.
Three years ago, ABC witnessed something unusual. Most shows gradually run out of ratings steam. But in its 10th season, the audience for ABC’s soapy doctor drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” suddenly grew by nearly 1 million viewers to 12.3 million.
ABC executives concluded that teenagers were discovering the show on Netflix, bingeviewing whole seasons and returning to the ABC network to watch the current season. Through focus groups, ABC estimated the average age of the Netflix audience for “Grey’s Anatomy” was 29, which was striking for a program that debuted in 2005.
“Almost half of those people were not even out of elementary school when the show began,” said Cindy Davis, executive vice president of consumer experience for the Disney-ABC Television Group. “Teenage girls were discovering ‘Grey’s’ for the very first time.”
Then, some began watching the show on ABC with their moms, providing the bump in ratings. “My fans have literally given birth to new fans,” said the show’s creator, Shonda Rhimes. “That’s crazy to me.”