By India McCarty
Could traditional TV begin looking more like TikTok? This expert thinks it’s the smart move.
“TikTok has broken my middle-aged brain,” Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast host Andrew Wallenstein explained. “Somehow the controversial app has become my primary media destination every day instead of television, and when I say television, I mean both pay TV and subscription streaming.”
He added, “TV shows and movies have taken a backseat to TikTok’s never-ending algorithmically targeted feed of short-form videos.”
Wallenstein shared that TikTok’s algorithm and “addictive” content format has made him unable to watch hour-long and half-hour-long TV shows. He also praised the app’s comedic content creators, saying that their videos just show what’s missing from sitcoms and comedies on TV and in theaters.
“I think you can draw an even broader conclusion that the vast array of comedy you can overdose on TikTok comes at the expense of the rest of media,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that comedy could not seem more dead in film and TV right now while on TikTok — it’s alive and well.”
These factors have left Wallenstein with one simple conclusion: that this is where traditional TV is heading.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that, for better or for worse, this is where it’s all going — whether you’re watching on your phone and, this is where you might want to question my sanity, larger screens like your living room TV,” he said.
Wallenstein continued, “Truth be told, I cannot understand why TikTok hasn’t make a stronger bid for TV domination. Team up with a TV manufacturer to make a line of TikTok TVs complete with a scroll pad on the remote for thumb-swiping. Or turn the phone into a remote.”
He admitted that these predictions might be because of how recently he started using the app, and that his enthusiasm might just be a recency bias.
“For now though, I’m just one old man who happened to become TikTok’s newest fan,” Wallenstein concluded.
He isn’t the only one who foresees TikTok’s short-video format replacing traditional TV.
In a 2024 report published by Variety, researchers found that “watching TV and movies together accounted for just 32% of media time among 13-24-year-olds, versus 59% for consumers over 35.”
The report also stated that Gen Z and Millennials “were more likely to say their preferred type of video content is social videos and livestreams rather than old and new TV shows or movies.”
Related: How TikTok Changed the Way We Watch TV and Movies
Some streaming services have even begun changing the way they make their content in a bid to recapture young people’s attention.
In an article about Netflix, n+1 magazine reported that many screenwriters who have worked with the platform said they received the same note: “Have this character announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along.”
Netflix execs tell screenwriters to have characters “announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have a program on in the background can follow along”
They also have thousands of micro-genres including “casual viewing” which is used for movies/TV that go down best when… pic.twitter.com/8pZ4XxG7mu
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) December 27, 2024
In other words, write scripts so people who are looking at their phones instead of their TVs can still follow the action.
The A.V. Club published similar comments, with ALL RISE writer Dylan Park-Pettiford sharing that TV executives told him they were looking for “TV that you don’t have to pay attention to. TV that you can watch while you’re looking at your phone.”
TikTok’s increasing popularity has changed the social media landscape — now, it’s starting to shift the way we watch TV, too.
Read Next: Is Social Media the New Movie Theater? Viewing Times Amass for TikTok, Instagram
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