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The Best Show Nobody's Watching
How I Met Your Mother should have been the next Friends. The actors are dedicated, the characters honest; the writers walk the fine line between comedy and sentimentality flawlessly. So what went wrong? Miriam Datskovsky talked to the Emmy-nominated star, Neil Patrick Harris—who’s also this year’s Emmy host.
The very morning Letterman alums Carter Bays and Craig Thomas pitched their sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, to CBS, network president Les Moonves told his development team that they needed a show for young people. In other words, the next Friends. With Friends going off the air, CBS suddenly had a chance to cut into the much coveted 18 to 49 demographic. So CBS grabbed HIMYM, as its handful of diehard fans fondly call it.
Trouble is, the ratings blow: since its premiere in 2005, How I Met Your Mother has averaged nine million viewers between ages 18 to 49, placing it just shy of 60th in the rankings. The show is one of those cult-faves with a dedicated twentysomething following not unlike that of Miss Guided, which, when ABC cancelled after seven short episodes last year, rallied the blogosphere in a vain attempt to bring the freshman comedy back.
"When Dancing With The Stars is on for an hour-and-a-half Monday nights, you could show your boner on TV and no one would watch it."
That How I Met Your Mother airs on Monday nights is both a blessing and a curse. It doesn’t compete with comedy heavyweights The Office or even Entourage, but it does tend to get lost behind goofy reality TV and game shows. “When Dancing With The Stars is on for an hour-and-a-half Monday nights, you could show your boner on TV and no one would watch it,” Neil Patrick Harris, who plays Barney, a douchy, eccentric, but oddly humane and appealing man-slut, told The Daily Beast. “We’re glad we’re not in competition with another similar show. But honestly it can be frustrating when a show about suitcases [Deal or No Deal] beats you in the ratings week after week.”
That so few people actually watch HIMYM frustrates me too. True, I am a twenty-something single girl striving to become a successful journalist in New York and probably drinking more than I am advised to and, as such, firmly within the target audience. But the show is hilarious and heart-warming, genius in its writing, and innovative in its story-telling. The characters are honest: In addition to Barney, there is Ted (played by Josh Radnor), the goofy, romantic, slightly over-the-top protagonist searching for the love of his life; Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan), the would-be environmental protection lawyer stuck in a corporate job and his kindergarten-teacher, fashion-addict wife; and Robin (Cobie Smolders), the incredibly independent, forceful Canadian television reporter who inadvertently stole Ted, and then Barney’s, hearts.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
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Miriam Datskovsky is an associate editor at The Daily Beast. She has written for Conde Nast Portfolio, New York magazine, and nymag.com.
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Miriam Datskovsky is an associate editor at The Daily Beast. She has written for Conde Nast Portfolio, New York magazine, and nymag.com.
Kara Cutruzzula is an assistant editor at The Daily Beast.
Friday Night's Bright Light
Miriam Datskovsky is an associate editor at The Daily Beast. She has written for Conde Nast Portfolio, New York magazine, and nymag.com.
DebbieBeast
HIMYM is my favorite show, hands down, and I feel like I single-handly try to keep their ratings up.
dglandroy
I have watched this show and I have to say, I think the writing has gone down the toliet. Every week I try and give it another try, and it almost always has a negative and almost hostile reference to veg/vegans for no apparent reason, or some kind of animal helplessly involved like the poor monkey a few episides ago. It just comes off as being written by ignorant gradeschool boys.
Inanna
Insulting people is not a good way to win them to you cause.
-a fortysomething former wisconsinite
esazee
I love this show! It makes friends look so generic and unrealistic...the thing I like best about this show are the details that they go through to explain things like Lily's expenisve outfits despite the fact that she's a teacher (she has loads of debt - it's great that the characters face situations like that). Friends would drive me crazy with Rachel (a waitress) and Monica (unemployed?) affording that huge apartment in NYC. I also love the less noticeable things in HIMYM, like when a character makes a joke, the others laugh, instead of eye-rolling or snarky remarks...its all part and parcel of a show that's very realistic in the way us twenty-somethings think, talk and react to the situations people our age are facing.
abrelosojos
This piece needs severe copy-editing.
Rdschenkel
I watched a few early episodes, but I think I'm burnt out on the sitcom with the live (fake) studio audience. Some new and innovative shows are Dexter, True Blood, and if you're looking for amusing cultural commentary - South Park.
mattcohen
hee hee you love a tv show you actually tried to keep your job as a writer by writing about it. How much did CBS pay for this?
As i have learned so often, just becuase you love it doesn't mean it doesnt suck.
fourtwenty
My wife and I both love this show. Love, love, love...
- fortysomething red stater
powderblue
It is definitely one of my favorite shows. Being a 20 Something single guy in a big city, I find myself associating with a lot of the whacky situations the characters get into.
This season has started off weaker than past seasons but every time I write the show off, HIMYM "stops being lame and is awesome instead. True Story"
Liberty4all
This show cant compare to Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia
skunkworks
The "new Friends" is a dream that will never die, but anything that's the "new" anything is bound to be the bland sitcom pablum that is this show. Seriously, it's as bad as TAAHM or ATJ.
You're a young "girl in the city" eh? I'm guessing you would have been a big fan of CITC or JSM. But I'm afraid S, the gold standard of 90's sitcoms would have been a little over your head.
PamBeast
Am forty-something, and pleased to know that due to the fact that I watch the show, I am officially not silly. Hooray!
uacrazycraka101
so true. HIMYM is a really good show. i recomend it to anyone. it's a shame that so many other good shows come on at the same time, ie: Chuck, also an really goog show.
flockofseagulls00
LOVE this piece, thanks for writing it -- i'm such a huge HIMYM fan
ONE BONE TO PICK WITCHA though is this: enough with the "HIMYM doesn't get great ratings" stories. It's actually not true. HIMYM beat "Dancing With The Stars" last week in both 18 to 49 and 18 to 34. Plus, HIMYM has had its best-ever start to a season in 18 to 49 this year. Please please PLEASE do your research properly before writing the "HIMYM's rating aren't so good" story -- in context, they're VERY GOOD. HIMYM's the third highest rated comedy on the air now, Behind only 2.5 Men and "The Office" (which it routinely beats in total viewers and sometimes ties or beats in 18 to 49).
Sorry, but i've just read this angle on HIMYM one too many times -- if you look at the facts, HIMYM's a real success story ratings-wise...it's also CBS' youngest skewing show -- why did you include none of these fact?
flockofseagulls00
p.s. - but thanks for writing this piece -- it's certainly underappreciated! but the ratings have been doing better for quite a little bit now
Thank you.
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