What are you binge-watching in lockdown?
Comedies are my favourites so 'Not Going Out' and 'Vicar of Dibley' are getting some welly
Thanks to lockdown, many of us have spent a significant amount of time binging our best-loved TV shows. And, although outfits such as Netflix continue to provide new content monthly, sometimes rewatching old favourites can’t be beaten.
After 22% of fans admitted to rewatching their favourite series’ more than 10 times*, BroadbandDeals.com were intrigued to discover which popular TV shows we rewatch most to relive our favourite moments.
BroadbandDeals.com can reveal that Friends is the TV show fans love to rewatch the most – 63% of viewers have replayed the series after completing it! It’s clear to see this show is still an all-time classic, also ranking 21st on TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time list.
The second most rewatched TV show is Peep Show, with 59% of TV lovers proudly reliving the season’s best moments.
After being crowned the funniest TV show by OnBuy.com, it’s no surprise that The Office (US) is the third most rewatched series. More than half (55%) chose to freshen up on their dose of Michael Scott at least once more, with viewers watching 74 hours’ worth to complete all nine seasons. The original UK version starring Ricky Gervais also features in the top 10 (see full list below).
In fourth place is Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the research found that 53% of entertainment fans replayed the American comedy series after watching it originally.
The fifth most rewatched TV series is RuPaul’s Drag Race, with 51% of us falling back into our guilty pleasure. But with the new season airing, there’s now hours of new content for fans to look forward to!
My guilty pleasure is watching comedies. Fawlty Towers is No 1, but there just weren’t enough of them for my liking. Also, I must have watched all episodes of The Vicar of Dibley at least three times. I am now catching up with all episodes of Not Going Out. Some are so cringing that I struggle to watch. I missed all the early series because I was living abroad when they were first aired from 2006. I didn’t know, for example, that in the first series Lee’s love interest was an American, nor that Timothy West originally played Lucy’s dad! I also missed Miranda Hart playing the maid. If you want some really good maid laughs, I can recommend Two and a Half Men. Berta was played by the actress Conchatta Ferrell who, sadly, passed last October. The scriptwriters definitely gave her some of the best lines.
| TV show | Percentage who have rewatched the series more than once | |
| 1 | Friends | 63% |
| 2 | Peep Show | 59% |
| 3 | The Office (US) | 55% |
| 4 | Brooklyn Nine-Nine | 53% |
| 5 | RuPaul’s Drag Race | 51% |
| 6 | The Office (UK) | 49% |
| 7 | It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia | 48% |
| 8 | Sex Education | 48% |
| 9 | Gilmore Girls | 45% |
| 10 | American Horror Story | 44% |
| 11 | New Girl | 42% |
| 12 | Big Bang Theory | 40% |
| 13 | Keeping Up with The Kardashians | 39% |
| 14 | Rick and Morty | 38% |
| 15 | How I Met Your Mother | 38% |
Looking to the future, BroadbandDeals.com also asked fans which new TV show they’re most likely to rewatch after finishing. They discovered that the series’ fans are most interested in rewatching during lockdown are Bridgerton, Schitt’s Creek and The Crown.
Methodology: BroadbandDeals.com surveyed 2,730 TV and entertainment fans around the world, simply asking ‘since March, which of these TV shows have you rewatched after originally completing?’ and providing 70 different multiple-choice options. They also asked ‘which of these newly aired TV shows do you plan on rewatching?’. *Finally, they asked ‘how many times have you rewatched at least one season of your favourite show after originally completing it?’ The survey was completed this month (January 2021).
