Audiences GapFill

Sitcoms are often targeted towards a  cultmainstreamdomesticcaptive audience, trying to cater towards broad swathes of age groups and gender. This can often be seen in how different characters in older sitcoms are written to appeal towards a particular  psychographicdemographicage groupnationality such as the Dad being relatable to older males, or a teenage daughter being relatable to young women.

The  AspirerExplorerMainstreamerStruggleris one of the 7 audience categories created by ad agency Young and Rubicam. These people like to follow trends, like to be a part of a larger group, and don't like taking  advantagedrugsbreaksrisks. As this audience type is the most common, it makes financial sense for media producers to cater to this market.  Modern Family has an intentionally  broadcultnichenarrow audience appeal, which is reflected in the diversity and range of personality types of the characters.

An individual's sense of humour falls under the category of a  a  contextualpsychographicexternaldemographic factor, as it is an individual psychological trait that can change and evolve over time, instead of being something concrete like age or nationality. For the producers of sitcoms, this poses a potential worry because of the fact that comedy is   objectiveunpredictablesubjectivecomplicated. In order to appeal to a mass market successfully, producers might have to avoid humour that is dark, graphic, or potentially   incorrectconfusingboringoffensive in order to maintain maximum viewership and consequently, maximum profit.