# Why no sitcoms on American daytime TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [November 17, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776 "2020-11-17T10:09:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/1 "2020-11-17T10:09:21Z")
American daytime television is full of first-run children’s programming, soap operas, game shows, news shows, talk shows, and court shows. But there are never any sitcoms (except for reruns from primetime). Why is this? I mean, I know the simplistic answer is that running new sitcom episodes during the day doesn’t generate as much ad revenue as running new episodes of other programs, and that the networks have probably demonstrated this empirically. But whence this difference in revenue—why do people who watch TV during the day prefer watching new soap operas and game shows to new comedy shows? Or is it a question of sitcoms simply being too expensive to produce in comparison to the size of the viewership? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/2 "2020-11-17T10:46:09Z")
It’s not that people necessarily _prefer_ to watch soaps and game shows during the day, but those are a lot cheaper to produce, and the audiences are much smaller. Additionally, broadcast networks (where the vast majority of first-run sitcoms appear) don’t generally provide a network feed outside of primetime, except for news and sports. OTOH, teen sitcoms like _Saved by the Bell_ and such were generally distributed in first-run syndication where stations aired them on Saturday mornings or weekday afternoons for the after-school crowd. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/3 "2020-11-17T10:55:01Z")
Most of the people with money to spend on advertised goods are at work during the day time. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/4 "2020-11-17T11:20:05Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > It’s not that people necessarily _prefer_ to watch soaps and game shows during the day, but those are a lot cheaper to produce I get how an unscripted game show would be cheaper to produce than a scripted comedy—there’s not much writing to do, there’s plenty of boilerplate material to fill the airtime, you need to pay only one host instead of a whole cast of actors, there’s only one set and the camera angles and lighting are fairly static, etc. But why would a scripted multicam drama (like a soap opera) be cheaper to produce than a scripted multicam comedy? In both cases you need a full suite of writers, actors, and set designers, and the director and crew need to spend time on rehearsals, camera blocking, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/5 "2020-11-17T11:28:44Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > But why would a scripted multicam drama (like a soap opera) be cheaper to produce than a scripted multicam comedy? In both cases you need a full suite of writers, actors, and set designers, and the director and crew need to spend time on rehearsals, camera blocking, etc. I grew up in an era in which many moms stayed home during the day and wouldn’t miss their favorite soap opera. And if you watch a soap opera day after day, you might start to notice that they are damn cheaply made. First, they don’t do a lot of rehearsals and they rarely do more than one take. That’s actually one of the skills required of a soap opera actor. It’s not necessarily an easy job. There are a limited number simple static sets that are used and reused for years at a time. They look cheap. The lighting is cheap and static. The audio is cheap. The blocking is simple. Everything about a soap opera is designed to be cheap and easy to produce four or five days a week, week after week, year after year. And the system was developed in an era when they were broadcasting LIVE. Also a simple, static multi-camera setup makes editing and post-production cheap and easy too—single camera shows are way more complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/6 "2020-11-17T11:34:50Z")
On multi camera shows especially on daytime shows scenes are often “edited” shot for shot “in camera” so there’s little left to edit in post. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/7 "2020-11-17T11:54:52Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > First, they don’t do a lot of rehearsals and they rarely do more than one take. That’s actually one of the skills required of a soap opera actor. It’s not necessarily an easy job. > > There are a limited number simple static sets that are used and reused for years at a time. They look cheap. The lighting is cheap and static. The audio is cheap. The blocking is simple. Everything about a soap opera is designed to be cheap and easy to produce four or five days a week, week after week, year after year. And the system was developed in an era when they were broadcasting LIVE. All this, exactly. Look closely at a soap some time. Individual shots are long, often with all the actors facing camera, and little to no editing. (You know the comedy trope about soap opera actors shooting a romantic scene with the dude behind the woman, both looking straight ahead? That’s hardly an exaggeration.) Soap sets are basically built like stage plays, with wash lighting and hanging condenser mics. (Booms are used for closeups and two-shots, and body mics are rarely used.) Soaps sound bad and have a lot of reverb and background noise for that reason. (Which is also why they cover all of it up with a near-constant musical score.) What little editing there is, is mostly done live, by a technical director switching cameras in real time, like a talk show or sporting event. (Some of that will be cleaned up in post, but only what they can do on a very tight schedule. They have to put out five episodes a week usually.) Soaps never shoot outdoors, and rarely travel outside a single soundstage complex. Compare that to a multicam sitcom, where dialog is assembled from multiple takes, often involving full coverage (a wide shot of everybody) and individual close-ups. Cuts are short, rarely more than a few seconds each. In a single-cam sitcom, lighting and audio will be adjusted for every setup, just like shooting a tiny movie. All of that is significantly more expensive than a typical soap, and post-production is also vastly more expensive. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/8 "2020-11-17T12:16:29Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Compare that to a multicam sitcom, where dialog is assembled from multiple takes, often involving full coverage (a wide shot of everybody) and individual close-ups. Is this really true? My understanding is that a lot of multicam sitcoms are (or were) shot much like a live play—that is, end-to-end, once only, in front of an audience. There were rarely multiple takes, except for pickups to fix any major errors. At least, that’s what I’ve gleaned from years of reading the blog of Ken Levine (a writer and sometime director and showrunner of _Cheers_) and from listening to his podcast, where he often interviews other sitcom producers. I’ve read that some sitcoms, like _Three’s Company_, would always shoot the entire episode twice, though this seems to have been an exception to the typical practice at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/9 "2020-11-17T12:26:41Z")
Initially, (going back to radio, in fact) it was just the demographics of the limited afternoon audience; women, retirees, and some children. Soaps and game shows (and reruns for the kids after school) are what broadcasters and advertisers thought that audience wanted and because of the smaller audiences they had to be cheaply produced. Since then, it’s mostly just tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/10 "2020-11-17T12:31:15Z")
And to add to that, the writing isn’t anything special on a soap either. There’s nothing witty or clever or particularly funny. It wouldn’t surprise me if an hour long episode, dialogue and all, was written in less than a few hours with a handful of writers. There’s a reason why you can miss days or weeks of a soap and return to it not feeling like you missed anything. Nothing ever really changes, it’s more of a same shit different day situation. I’ve always figured that’s another reason soaps are on during the day. You can have them on and you don’t have to actively watch them. A house wife can turn any number of soaps on and have a pretty good idea about what’s going on even though she’s vacuuming and making beds, darting back and forth to the kitchen getting dinner ready, making phone calls etc. It’s not like a sitcom where you pretty much have to be glue to the TV for at least 22 out of 30 minutes, with just the commercial breaks to do other things. I think the same goes for court TV and game shows. Also things you don’t have to pay particularly close attention to and still be able to follow. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/11 "2020-11-17T13:21:09Z")
I’ve heard TV comedy writers complaining about having to come up with 22 episodes a year. I can’t imagine what they’d say if they had to come up with 200 episodes instead. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/12 "2020-11-17T13:48:27Z")
Aren’t there any weekly daytime shows? (If not, why not?) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/13 "2020-11-17T13:50:20Z")
Nickelodeon has or at least had sitcoms aims for kids & teens. I think Disney did also. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/14 "2020-11-17T13:50:47Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Is this really true? My understanding is that a lot of multicam sitcoms are (or were) shot much like a live play—that is, end-to-end, once only, in front of an audience. There were rarely multiple takes, except for pickups to fix any major errors. A typical multicam sitcom shoot will take 3-4 hours (usually in front of an audience, unless they have to do special effects or something.) Multiple takes are common, but not as common as a single-cam setup where you’ll be doing the same lines over and over _ad nauseum_ to get every needed angle. Sitcoms will typically have one camera on a wide-shot, with others doing closeups at the same time, and some amount of live-editing is common too. But sitcoms will also experiment with different timings, try out different punchlines, etc. Sometimes they’ll even ask the audience for feedback if a joke doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/15 "2020-11-17T13:55:25Z")
In the last 20 years, here are some of the Nickelodeon sitcoms. Victorious iCarly Sam & Cat (using characters from Victorious & iCarly) Zoey 101 Drake & Josh Nicky Ricky Dicky & Dawn The Thundermans Henry Danger The Haunted Hathaways. The had more in the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/16 "2020-11-17T14:40:58Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I’ve heard TV comedy writers complaining about having to come up with 22 episodes a year. I can’t imagine what they’d say if they had to come up with 200 episodes instead. They’d write blander material, like what you see in soaps. I’d swear it was Jim Gaffigan talking about Conan, but I can’t find it, but I recall some comedian talking about writing monologues for one of the late night guys and why they’re so bland. His response was that, his 90 minute stand up act takes about a year for him to write. With late night shows, you have about 12 hours to write a five minute act that has to appeal to a wide variety of people and include events that have happened within the 12-24 hours before the show goes live. There’s no time for cleverness or subtlety or call backs. They just have to crank out a brand new 5 minute spiel every day. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/17 "2020-11-17T14:43:03Z")
I suspect a lot of sitcoms have two tapings, or at least they used to. I know for sure _ **The Cosby Show** _ did. If a joke fell flat the first time around, they’d do a quick rewrite in the hope that the second audience would laugh at the revision. If that failed, of course, they’d just “sweeten” the scene with the laugh track. And yeah, you don’t have to actively watch most daytime TV. It can be on in the background while you do something else. I learned this a long time ago when I started telecommuting. I might lose it if I didn’t have that noise on in the background. I might be unusual in that instead of soap operas or judge shows, I keep mostly sitcoms on all day long. (There are a lot of them available in my cable package.) I can do this because they’re all reruns I’ve seen many, many times and now know by heart (_ **Frasier** _, _ **Seinfeld** _, _ **Cheers!** _, _ **Corner Gas** _, _et cetera_). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/18 "2020-11-17T16:00:57Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Aren’t there any weekly daytime shows? (If not, why not?) Not that I know of. Daytime TV shows are almost invariably daily (Monday through Friday), while sitcoms are almost invariably weekly. As for why not, my WAG is that people who are home during the day tend to have the same routine every weekday. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/19 "2020-11-17T16:42:06Z")
It’s all a matter of cost. There aren’t as many soap operas on TV as there used to be, because soap operas are more expensive to produce than game shows, which are more expensive to produce than talk shows, which are more expensive to produce than courtroom reality shows. Another way soaps keep costs down is by replacing actors instead of giving them raises. The long-running stars of soaps may actually appear in only a handful of episodes each year, while the bulk of work is being carried by young, cheap actors hired for one story arc at a time. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776/20 "2020-11-17T16:59:04Z")
Note that soap operas are dying off each year. There are currently only four being broadcast and ratings drop each year (over 16% between 2019 and 2020). The current shows have been on the air for decades (the most recent is over 30 years old). In another ten years, they will be gone. At one time, the ratings justified a higher production costs. But no one is going to risk something like a daily sitcom, which probably would cost more. In fact, other than _Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Fernwood 2 Night,_ and _All That Glitters_ (all Norman Lear productions), I don’t think there’s ever been an attempt at a daily sitcom. All three of them used the same cost saving measures as soap operas. Also, soap operas are very slow moving plot wise so if you miss a week, you can still catch up. Sitcoms can’t afford that. Ultimately, there’s no reason to invest the money with little chance of success when talk and game shows can fill the time more cheaply. Note that even those are usually syndicated. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-sitcoms-on-american-daytime-tv/925776.md?page=2)