TV comedy’s collapse: Ankler maps the decade-long crash in scripted laughs

The Ankler’s Lesley Goldberg reports that U.S.-produced scripted comedies fell from 210 series in 2021 to just 122 in 2025, a nearly 30 percent drop in share since that peak.

Why it matters. Emerging comedy writers and showrunners face a shrinking pool of greenlights, with studios increasingly betting only on established names rather than developing new talent.

Signal from The Ankler · Lesley Goldberg · read the original.

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