The New Audience for Old TV: Considering the Resurgent Popularity of The Sopranos

In 2020-21, the classic HBO show The Sopranos (1999-2007) saw a rapid increase in viewership and was proclaimed to be one of the hottest shows of lockdown by outlets like The Guardian and GQ. This resurgent popularity of The Sopranos raises important analytical questions for media scholarshow do audiences understand a complex text like The Sopranos in a radically different televisual and cultural context? Did they adapt the show to fit the particularities of the present moment or was it simply a nostalgic escape from the bleak conditions of the pandemic? Perhaps most importantly though, did the distinct televisual environment of the 2020s bring with it markedly new ways for audiences to understand old shows?

The New Audience for Old TV is the first book to investigate how audiences re-read and re-interpret resurgent shows when watching in new cultural contexts. Based on a series of original research interviews with young fans, it considers how new contexts of interpretation, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), and post #MeToo gender politics, informed the unique experience of watching. Using the metaphor of the anamorphic painting, it introduces the analytical framework of a retrospective reading to reveal the new meanings that are being made available for old TV.

Ultimately, The New Audience for Old TV uncovers fresh insights into audiences experiences with prestige TV and the new avenues of meaning-making in the age of streaming.