The Top 5 Greatest Sitcoms in TV History
Since the advent of appointment television, viewers have made comfort-watching their favorite sitcom a daily ritual. The sitcom formula offers not only an escape into a familiar world, but also the added relief of entering a funny one, filled with endearing, relatable characters who provide the warm embrace of nostalgia. As we’ve learned through extensive polling here at Ranker, the key to a sitcom’s enduring popularity lies in its binge-worthiness and rewatchability — to the point of reaching mindless background viewing status.
NBC’s hit series Friends epitomizes this formula better than any other show, which is probably why its ranked #1 on our poll of TV Shows You Wish You Were A Character On (17.1K votes). As the series finale approaches its 20th anniversary this May 6 (a cultural phenomenon that drew in an estimated 52.5 million U.S. viewers, making it one of the most-watched series finales in TV history), the show's legacy remains as relevant as ever — impressively, it still holds the #1 spot on our definitive list of The Greatest Sitcoms In Television History (1.2M votes).
So which other sitcoms have stood the test of time? According to our aforementioned poll, the Top 5 most popular sitcoms today — Friends, The Office, Seinfeld, Modern Family, and How I Met Your Mother — had a full run on network TV before finding new life on streaming platforms. Which begs the question: How do you effectively introduce a sitcom with a huge, established audience to a new cord-cutting generation of fans?
That’s where Ranker Insights comes in — our data tells us the tastes and (often surprising) preferences of each sitcom’s existing fan base, which is crucial for marketers and advertisers looking to reach untapped audiences in unexpected places.
As we run down what made these Top 5 sitcoms succeed, we’ll also be looking at the fan bases each popular comedy series attracts.
#1: Friends
Photo: NBC
Friends was a cornerstone of NBC's "Must See TV" '90s lineup, alongside other iconic shows like Seinfeld and ER, which boosted its visibility and cemented its status as one of the network's flagship programs. After becoming available on Netflix in 2015, the show experienced a resurgence, especially among younger viewers who hadn't seen its original run. Although its streaming success wasn't measured by traditional TV ratings, it consistently ranked among the most-watched and binge-watched shows on the platform, which not only reaffirmed its enduring appeal, but also solidified its position as a cultural classic. Case in point: Chandler Bing, played by the late Matthew Perry, still holds the #2 spot on our poll of The Funniest TV Characters of All Time (1.1M votes), while Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani ranks #4.
What other shows do Friends fans love to watch? Predictably, they love similar NYC rom-coms like Sex and the City and Will & Grace, though they’re actually more likely to enjoy science-forward programming like Grey’s Anatomy and The Big Bang Theory. (Perhaps Ross’s passion for paleontology rubbed off on their tastes.)
We’ve also learned that Friends fans are deeply drawn to millennial teen shows, as they’re at least 3x more likely than the average viewer to love high school sitcoms such as Boy Meets World, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Saved by the Bell, and teen soaps like Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and The O.C. That’s probably why they lack patience for the less traditionally formulaic, elitist comedies, such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Portlandia, and The Colbert Report.
Friends is currently available to stream on Max.
#2: The Office
Photo: NBC
NBC’s The Office was a smash hit that played a pivotal role in popularizing two innovative sitcom techniques in the U.S. after years of multi-cam shows spoon-feeding audiences with laugh tracks: the single-camera comedy and the mockumentary format. By successfully satirizing office culture with this more nuanced and subtle approach, the show influenced subsequent sitcoms like Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Abbott Elementary to follow suit, reshaping the way comedic workplace dynamics were depicted on screen. Beyond its format, The Office most notably excelled at creating multifaceted characters with timeless quirks that would serve as running jokes for its entire nine-season run — a critical component for achieving lasting cultural relevance (see: Steve Carell’s Michael Scott still ranked as the #2 Funniest TV Character Of All Time, with Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute trailing at #3). While entering syndication in 2009 certainly helped The Office gain more widespread popularity, when the show started streaming on Netflix (and was regularly ranked as the platform’s most-streamed show), it exploded.
Fans of The Office are, unsurprisingly, 8x more likely to enjoy the sitcoms that most closely share its DNA, like its original predecessor, the British BBC version of The Office, and the mockumentary sitcom Parks and Recreation, also led by its showrunner, Greg Daniels. They’re also 6x more prone to watching comedies with cringeworthy antiheroes, like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Workaholics, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Most predictably, they love to “ship” a longstanding will-they-won’t-they couple; just as they’ve ranked The Office’s Jim and Pam highly on our poll of Slow-Burn TV Couples That Were Totally Worth The Wait (1.9K votes), so too have they voted up couples from other shows they enjoy, like New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Parks and Recreation.
What may come as more of a surprise is that The Office fans are especially partial to adult animation — they’re at least 3x more likely than the average viewer to binge shows like South Park, Rick and Morty, and Bob’s Burgers. It may also surprise you to learn that their love of workplace dynamics doesn’t extend beyond the realm of comedy, as they’ve expressed a distaste for crime procedural dramas like NYPD Blue, CSI: Miami, and NCIS: Los Angeles.
The Office is currently available to stream on Peacock.
#3: Seinfeld
Photo: NBC
Seinfeld revolutionized television with its groundbreaking "show about nothing" concept, diverging from traditional, contrived sitcom plots to focus on mundane everyday situations with observational humor. Driven by neurotic characters and sharp writing, the show became a staple of pop culture, coining terms that entered the cultural lexicon like “close-talker” and “regifting.” Its series finale on NBC garnered massive viewership in 1998 ( surpassing the Friends finale’s viewership record by 24.1 million viewers), and its success in syndication and arrival on Hulu in 2015 have helped longtime and newfound fans ensure its legacy.
As could be expected of the oldest sitcom in our Top 5, Seinfeld fans tend to flock to vintage '70s sitcoms — they’re 3x more nostalgic for former hit shows like All in the Family, Taxi, and M*A*S*H. They’re also more dialed into current events than the average viewer, being twice as likely to love news-centric programming like Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, 60 Minutes, and Saturday Night Live.
Though ironically, we’ve learned that the fans of a “show about nothing” seem to also love a show with an elaborate storyline: They’re twice as likely to love sci-fi hits like The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, and Westworld.
Seinfeld is currently available to stream on Netflix.
#4: Modern Family
Photo: ABC
ABC’s Modern Family played a significant role in reshaping the portrayal of family dynamics on television. It introduced the mockumentary format to family sitcoms, using comedy to normalize and celebrate a diverse range of family structures, including traditional nuclear families, blended families, and same-sex parents. Its influence extended beyond the realm of TV, contributing to broader discussions about representation and inclusion in media that continue to evolve.
Fans of Modern Family are particularly fond of broadcast network shows that similarly aired ahead of the streaming era. They’re at least 3X as likely to love ABC's The Middle and The Goldbergs, and NBC's The Good Place and This Is Us. They’re also twice as likely to enjoy coming-of-age stories like Never Have I Ever, Awkward, Young Sheldon, and Jane the Virgin, and they’ve got the most progressive taste of any fan base we’ve covered thus far, gravitating to other LGBTQ-centered shows like The Fosters, Orange Is the New Black, Euphoria, Sex Education, and Will & Grace.
Despite their appetite for family shows, you may be surprised to learn that Modern Family fans are not afraid to veer away from wholesome, heartwarming fare — they’re twice as likely to favor shows with dystopian elements like American Horror Story and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Modern Family is currently available to stream on Hulu and Peacock.
#5: How I Met Your Mother
Photo: CBS
How I Met Your Mother (affectionately dubbed HIMYM by fans) was one of CBS's highest-rated comedies during its original broadcast and revolutionized sitcom storytelling with its nonlinear narrative structure. The framing device of Bob Saget’s narration recounting his journey to find the mother of his children facilitated techniques like flashbacks and flash-forwards, coupled with unreliable narration, which set a precedent for intricate storytelling in the genre. Much like Seinfeld, HIMYM ingrained countless catchphrases into everyday vernacular, like “Legendary!” "Suit up!" "Wait for it..." and “Bro code” — all coined by Neil Patrick Harris’s character, Barney Stinson, a charismatic womanizer whom many fans find regressively toxic in hindsight, but still ranks #5 on The Funniest TV Characters Of All Time (1.1M votes) and #1 on The Biggest Pimps In Television History (40K votes) (followed by Friends’ Joey Tribbiani at #2). Despite a divisive series finale, HIMYM's impact on television remains palpable, indicated by ongoing debates the show has sparked about storytelling and character arcs within its fan community, and its continued syndication and streaming success on Hulu.
Fans of How I Met Your Mother are romantics at heart, which is why they’re 3x more likely to devour romantic teen melodramas on networks like Freeform (Pretty Little Liars) and The CW (Gossip Girl, Hart of Dixie).
You might not expect HIMYM fans to particularly care for medical procedurals, but they’re twice as likely as the average viewer to love Fox’s House, 3x more likely to love ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, and a whopping 4x more likely to love the ABC medical sitcom Scrubs. They’re also twice as likely to seek out supernatural fantasies like The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, and The Good Place. And their sense of humor skews a bit more juvenile than your everyday TV viewer: They’re twice as big on watching kids' shows like The Fairly Oddparents, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (which tracks, considering their deep aversion to watching crime shows like The Wire, The Shield, and Columbo, which threaten to shatter their naiveté).
How I Met Your Mother is currently available to stream on Hulu and will also be available on Netflix June 3, 2024.
