Created under fair use by Shobini Iyer

Having a go-to show is a common habit shared by many, but the reasons why are not as well known.

Everyone has a comfort show— a show one can always rely on to cheer them up but somehow never gets old.

During quarantine, many people turned to television shows to fill the abundance of time, but an unusual behavior quickly emerged. Why did “Friends,” a show that stopped airing in 2004, experience a peak in viewership in the early stages of the pandemic? Why were people rewatching “The Office’” for the seventh time rather than beginning a new show?  Why have streaming platforms continued to bid for rights on beloved sitcoms that are decades-old? 

The answer is comfort. Whether this equated to binge-watching “New Girl” or catching up on “Grey’s Anatomy,” comfort shows have provided audiences with much needed relief from the twists, turns and cliffhangers of everyday life. 

Black Lives Matter protests, intense political division, a deadly virus— this was the reality when the pandemic first set in. Audiences travelled back in time through television, finding solace in the familiar during such an unpredictable time. 

Throughout the past year and a half, people have experienced severe cognitive overload. Changing work and school conditions, lifeless Zoom meetings and complete isolation were among many of the sources of stress people experienced during quarantine. 

Unfortunately, the end of quarantine did not mean the end of cognitive overload. Today, it is new variants, a heavily politicized virus and a general uncertainty about the future that are the stressors taking root in people’s lives. 

This is where comfort shows have yet again come into play, relieving the pressure of an overloaded mind. 

Junior Ella Jones is an avid fan of “The Office,” an NBC sitcom that originally aired from 2005 to 2013. “I find myself still rewatching ‘The Office’ because it’s easy to watch. Of course the show is funny and I love all the characters, but it’s more about the comfort of knowing everything about the show and not having to grow accustomed to a new one,” she said. 

Jones’s experience in turning to old TV shows is shared by many and is even backed by scientific evidence. A 2012 study found that immersing oneself in the fictional world of an old TV show restores a sense of self-control. New shows can be exciting, but not having to think about where a plot is going is a different form of excitement. Providing the brain with a chance to slack off is sometimes more rewarding than undergoing the stress that can come from a new experience. 

In addition, the mere-exposure effect has proven that familiarity with something such as a TV show makes it easier to process and, in turn, induces a positive reaction, making the viewer more likely to come back to it in the future. 

Next time you find yourself tuning in to your trusty TV show for the fifth time through, know you are not alone.