The Top 5 Shows Streaming on Hulu — According to How I Met Your Mother Fans

There’s plenty of good reason to believe Hulu’s decision to produce a spinoff sequel to the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother was a good one: the comedy is #2 on Ranker’s list of The Best Sitcoms of the 2000s, as well as #4 on the list of The Greatest Sitcoms In Television History. And since the upcoming spinoff, titled How I Met Your Father, will center on the romantic experiences of a new hero played by Hilary Duff, it’s also a positive sign that the original show is #1 on our list of TV Shows That Would Be Better With Different Protagonists.

But none of this will matter if Hulu is unable to engage the original show’s fan base. How I Met Your Mother has been available to stream on Hulu since 2017, which should give the streamer a strong sense of who among its subscribers is a fan of the series. Still, it can’t hurt to expand Hulu’s targeted audience — who knows how many fans stopped watching after the show’s finale, or after it left Netflix in 2017, or who rewatch it only on DVD? How can Hulu target fans who haven’t seen the original series, but would probably like it… and by extension, would probably like Hulu’s upcoming original spinoff?

We used Ranker Insights to find the Top 5 TV shows currently available to stream on Hulu that How I Met Your Mother fans are more likely to love. The people who have streamed these shows on Hulu are more likely to be fans of How I Met Your Mother, and are therefore viewers who would likely be interested in checking out Hulu’s new spinoff series, How I Met Your Father.

#1: Baby Daddy

It makes sense that HIMYM fans would be 5X more likely to gravitate toward Baby Daddy, another series about the journey from 20-something bachelor in New York City to fatherhood. The ABC Family series follows bartender Ben Wheeler after a one-night stand suddenly and unexpectedly makes him a single father, forcing him to turn to his mother and best friends for help. The show shares not just themes with How I Met Your Mother, but also a format (a modern, multicamera sitcom), which could explain why fans of one show tend to vote up the other on lists like Best TV Shows To Binge Watch (1.3 million votes).

#2: Scrubs

Zach Braff rose to fame thanks to Scrubs and used that platform to start making films like Garden State, much like How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor did before writing and directing Liberal Arts. Maybe that’s what makes fans of one 5X more likely to also enjoy the other — HIMYM fans are especially more likely (7X) to vote up Scrubs on the list of Best TV Shows Of The Past 20 Years (1.5 million votes). Maybe it’s the two shows’ shared reliance on an idealistic, sensitive, dark-haired protagonist. But other, smaller factors must connect the two in voters’ minds as well, because those who vote up How I Met Your Mother on our list of The Best TV Theme Songs Of All Time (279K votes) are 9X more likely to also vote up Scrubs.

#3: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a workplace sitcom that premiered just a year before How I Met Your Mother ended, shares more than just a city in common with the CBS comedy. Both these series feature sharply drawn, very different characters who still manage to find common ground with one another, with jokes that draw on the characters’ personalities and relationships rather than on pop culture or topical happenings. Fans of one show are 4X more likely to love the other in general. More specifically, those who vote up HIMYM on our list of Funniest TV Shows Of All Time (488K votes) are 7X more likely to also vote up Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

#4: Modern Family

Modern Family carried the family-oriented sitcom into the 21st century in more ways than one, bringing the single-camera, mockumentary-style format popularized by The Office to a more traditional sitcom setting. Conversely, How I Met Your Mother took a novel storytelling approach based on flashbacks and fit it inside a traditional multicamera setup. Both shows are very much of their time, which helps to explain why fans of How I Met Your Mother are 5X more likely to vote up Modern Family on our list of The Greatest Shows Of The 2000s, Ranked (141K votes). Overall, those who like How I Met Your Mother are 4X more likely than the average TV viewer to also enjoy Modern Family. 

#5: Private Practice

This Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Private Practice is 3X more likely to be enjoyed by those who love How I Met Your Mother (good news especially for Hulu, which hopes to sell these fans on another spinoff series). The connection between the two series isn’t obvious — one is a medical drama and the other is a sitcom — but TV fans looking for new shows to watch (via our Watchworthy app) are especially likely (between 4X and 6X) to feel positively about one show if they feel positively about the other. It’s a counterintuitive connection, but one that could prove all the more valuable if used to market How I Met Your Father to potential fans. 

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

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