Nostalgia baiting is not effective
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Nostalgia baiting has been an infuriating and half-baked strategy to increase TV viewership.
Over the past years, I have seen countless movies and television shows from my childhood and tween years rebooted, remade, or adapted in some form. From the live-action versions of every Disney movie ever, which add no new substance and are just worse overall; to revisiting the icons of Nickelodeon and Disney television show fame, but now they are old and can swear— nostalgia baiting in the film and TV industry is worse than ever.
Nostalgia baiting refers to the attempt to gain viewership by tempting them with characters, settings, or franchises from their childhood. It is different from just any old remake in that it does not generally seek to reimagine the original work but rather use the content of that original work to create a spin-off or sequel of the original content.
While nostalgia baiting has always existed, and it is no secret to advertisers that consumers like things that are already familiar to them or that were essential to them in pivotal times of their lives, like childhood, it now seems to be more rampant than ever.
Maybe I am noticing it more now because I have somehow become the audience for nostalgia baiting, but it seems like every other week, there is an announcement of some spin-off, remake, or reboot of the shows I watched as a kid. Just a few examples are iCarly (2021-2023), Wizard Beyond Waverly Place (2024- ), That ‘90s Show (2023-2024), and many more. The worst part about all this is that these reboots are often not even successful, with iCarly (2021-2023) and That ‘90s Show (2023-2024) having already been canceled.
With the oversaturation of television and the countless barriers to different shows caused by the age of streaming services, continuing to flood the market seems to be the choice these companies are making. The seeming genius of nostalgia baiting then occurs, as it is not likely a consumer will watch something, or even click on something, they have never heard of— or a show that isn’t flooded with various A-list celebrities. Nostalgia baiting, then, eases this problem, as pulling from a source material the audience is most likely already familiar with and remembers fondly makes viewers most interested in an initial watch.
Nostalgia bait often creates a lot of buzz, as former viewers speculate about what the show or movie might end up being about or see which original actors are returning. This buzz and initial excitement often lead to a successful premier of these shows, with the first episodes of many nostalgia bait television shows receiving impressive viewership numbers. Though, this does not seem to last.
The real issue with nostalgia baiting is that it cannot maintain itself. Nostalgia only works as a viewer gimmick and pulls them into the show for so long. Writers must be careful when playing with people’s tender memories of characters, plots, or even locations in a franchise. These series notoriously receive a lot of backlash from watchers of the original, often about how they dislike the character writing or overall plot.
These issues occur because getting nostalgia baiting just right is an impossible feat. For it to be successful, a studio must make the characters familiar yet further developed and more nuanced/layered for an older audience, include enough easter eggs for viewers to feel rectified (but not so many where it feels like they are relying on the source material too much), and create plots that explore the lingering quandaries of the original show while still feeling fresh.
Nostalgia baiting is something I am more than tired of seeing on my screen, and I hope studios are noticing the wild success of some of the film and TV industry’s most surreal, strange, and original works.