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Here’s What YA TV Creators Need to Do to Revitalize the Genre
By Movieguide® Contributor
Where did young adult television go, and are people even interested in it anymore?
Producer Greg Berlanti thinks so, despite the instant gratification young people get from things like social media reels.
“I don’t think the demand is dwindling,” he told Deadline, sharing his optimism for the genre. “There will always be a place for great YA. In fact, I think there is a huge opportunity for one of the current platforms to become the place people expect to find the best of it.”
Deadline reported, “During its heyday, the CW (and its predecessors, the WB and UPN) was the unequivocal home for young adult television that included faves like ONE TREE HILL, GOSSIP GIRL, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, and more. The network spent more than 20 years servicing the audience before a regime change in 2022 led to a shift away from that programming toward unscripted and sports content that appeals to a larger (see: older) viewership.”
Television creator Julie Plec believes the interest in young adult sitcoms comes in waves.
“The story remains the same. For a cycle, everyone swears they’re not buying YA. Everyone. Then one show hits big, and suddenly folks are hungry for it,” she explained. “Then a couple don’t work, and the market seals up tight again. Never give up on your great YA idea, but definitely expect that you’ll have to survive the cyclical aspect of the buyers’ appetite for the genre.”
However, young people’s content preferences have changed in recent years: they don’t want sexual content in their shows.
“Researchers found that 63.5% of adolescents said they preferred that big and small screen stories focus on friendships, while 62.4% said sexual content isn’t needed as a plot device,” Variety reported in October.
READ MORE: GEN Z REJECTS HOLLYWOOD SEX SCENES — HERE’S WHAT THEY REALLY WANT
“Our findings really seemed to solidify a trend we found emerging in our data last year: that young people are tired of seeing the same dated and unrelatable romantic tropes on screen,” said Alisha J. Hines, director of research at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Center for Scholars & Storytellers. “Teens and young adults want to see stories that more authentically reflect a full spectrum of nuanced relationships.”
The A.V. Club reported that young people “prefer fantasy stories (36.2 percent) to stuff about rich and famous people (7.2 percent), or personal issues (24.2 percent), actually still like going to the movies, and prefer ‘Hopeful, uplifting content with people ‘beating the odds.’”
In order for young adult TV to rebound, creators should focus their attention on the kinds of stories people want to see. Creators also might need to switch to different platforms, like YouTube, where young people spend a lot of their time.
Per Yahoo! Finance, “YouTube — owned by tech giant Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) — is solidifying its position as a dominant force in the streaming sector, according to the latest Nielsen survey. Nielsen’s data reveals that YouTube captured a substantial 9.7% of total viewership among streaming services during the month of May.”
READ MORE: YOUTUBE LEADS STREAMING AND DOMINATES TV LIVING ROOMS
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