What Makes a Long Running Hit Show?

Some shows struggle through three seasons. Although the plot might be interesting, for some reason it doesn’t catch on. A few of these shows make it to four seasons with hope that maybe they will go for their fifth.

Very few television dramas pass their seventh season, but a handful go beyond their tenth.

Why?

What makes this drama enter into its fourteenth season without question or that one start its twelfth? What makes them not merely popular but long lasting?

One finds that most modern successful shows have an ensemble, that is a large cast. There is something and someone for every viewer.

These viewers may love character one, those viewers love character two, on and on, because the diversity works. A viewer can see him or herself.

The Actors are different, and each one of their character has a ‘back story’.

This one bounced through foster homes, that one had a perfect childhood, this one can’t stay married, that one would never divorce. This one is unpopular, that one is not. This one is caustic, that one is nice. Different people whom you come to ‘know’ and can expect certain responses from.

Alright, that is pretty evident.

But there’s another factor. A factor realised by the best writers, that is the breaking of tension.

Dramas are, by definition serious. There is a lot of tension. Between the characters, between the characters and the events. This breaking of tension is necessary.

There are shows which are uncomfortable. It is constant stress, and certainly not entertainment, so people stop watching.

The popular shows have an element of humour, of irrelevance. They break the tension.

This makes the audience comfortable.

That humour, that silliness, where you can solve the personal problem easily and the character who is great in everything else, can not, makes the show easy to watch.

This is why the shows continue.

If you look at Grey’s Anatomy, which is one of the longest running dramas you will find a lot of side stories which are gentle and in some cases amusing. The tension is broken by a joke, a silly exchange.

The show does entertain.

And that is the basic purpose of dramas.