Why Gen Z And Gen Alpha Are Feasting On TV Comfort Food

John Campbell is a senior vice president at Walt Disney Co. who oversees streaming ad sales solutions. He also coaches his second-grade daughter’s basketball team, and recently asked her teammates to name their favorite TV show.

“Eleven out of 13 girls said ‘Hannah Montana,’ ” Campbell said in a recent interview, citing the popular Disney series starring Miley Cyrus that produced its last episode in 2011, before any of his players were born.

Campbell was pleased they selected a show from the Disney library, but wasn’t all that surprised based on the advertising demand he’s seeing for the company’s vintage shows.

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A recent study from National Research Group found that 60% of all TV consumed is library content. Among Gen Z, 40% say they watch older shows because they find them comforting and nostalgic. Disney’s own research finds that 25% of the programs kids call their favorites were made before 2010.

While newer cutting-edge series typically win critical kudos and accolades, Gen Z and Gen Alpha viewers are binge-watching programs that became hits on the broadcast and cable networks in the pre-streaming era. They are also devouring holiday movies and specials, even on traditional TV.

“We do see, especially around the holiday time, that people are looking for that comfort, that sense of ease,” Campbell said.

As TV ad spending moves from traditional networks to streaming, Campbell said Disney is capitalizing on the retro trend thanks to its massive library of series. The company has seen the Gen Z audiences devour hits of yesteryear such as “How I Met Your Mother,” “Modern Family” and “Golden Girls.”

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“Scrubs” and “Malcolm in the Middle” are such strong performers on Hulu and Disney+, the company has ordered reboots that advertisers are eager to be a part of, according to Campbell. Disney has even worked with advertisers to make throwback commercials to run in classic films on its streaming platforms and TV networks.

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“The younger audience is drawn to the perceived simplicity of the old times and humor,” Kavita Vazirani, executive vice president of research, insights and analytics, ABC News Group & Disney Entertainment Networks. “It’s programming that just makes them feel good, and it’s something that they can watch with their friends, their families.”

Older shows have long had a place among young viewers. Previous generations grew up watching reruns of “The Brady Bunch” and “I Love Lucy” after school, when their choices on broadcast TV were scant.

But the current viewer has an endless plethora of viewing choices through streaming and cable. One executive at another media company not authorized to comment publicly cited research that said teens and young adults are gravitating to the conventional sitcoms and dramas from the early 2000s, believing they were made explicitly for their age group.

During the era, the WB Network — later merged into the CW — was turning out young adult dramas such as “The Gil Girls” and “Dawson’s Creek,” while the Disney Channel was at the height of its popularity. “Friends,” the idealized rendering of urban life for young adults and long a favorite on streaming, was the ratings leader at the time.

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The appetite for such programs showed up in the most recent “Teens and Screens” study by the Center for Scholars & Storytellers @ UCLA found that among the 10- to 24 year-olds, 32.7% said they want to see “relatable stories that are like my personal life.” The previous year, the top answer was fantasy, which ranked second in 2025.

But another reason young viewers are digging into the vaults is volume.

The UCLA survey showed that the favorite show among the measured age group is the Netflix series “Stranger Things.” The series has only 42 episodes over five small-batch seasons.

When a young viewer finds an older successful series that ran on a network for years when 22 episodes per season was standard, they can binge for hundreds of hours.

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“There are a lot of seasons of available episodes that you can watch, in typically any random order you want to,” said Nii Mantse Addy, chief marketing officer at the streaming service Philo, which also has seen a sharp rise in viewing of library programs.

“There’s not as much decision fatigue,” Addy said. “The shows provide something that you can go back to and just turn on and know kind of how it’s going to make you feel.”

Executives also say that binge-watching old shows provides a respite from the angst young people experience while scrolling through social media, which escalated through the COVID-19 lockdowns.

But social media have also been a tool to help consumers discover new programs. Fans of vintage series post TikTok videos reacting to episodes that first aired years ago. There are also fan communities online and “re-watch” podcasts that are driving people to seek out programs.

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“Social media has been quite a catalyst for essentially introducing these old shows to a whole new audience, whether it’s through memes, viral clips or whatever it may be,” Vazirani said. “It’s like the modern day water cooler, essentially.”