Happy Gilmore 2 is getting roasted by critics, and honestly, it’s not hard to see why. It’s the latest example of how relying too heavily on nostalgia can leave audiences disappointed. The movie might make a few bucks based on name recognition, but long-term, it’s a bad bet. And that’s a lesson cable news should be paying close attention to.
Cable news has been leaning on nostalgia for years. Look at the lineups at networks like Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN. What do you see? Familiar faces. Predictable formats. A tone that echoes what worked in the early 2000s. Executives may think, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
But what if it is broken and they just don’t want to admit it?
The problem with Happy Gilmore 2 is that it wasn’t made because there was an incredible new story to tell. It was made because people loved the first one. That’s it. It’s a cash-in. A way to tap into memories of Bob Barker fistfights and one-liners about Subway sandwiches. Its content was created purely to feed off something that once worked.
Cable news can fall into the same trap: rely on an uber-familiar host, run back the familiar format, use the same elements that were cutting-edge in 2007. It’s all part of a formula that bets people want comfort over innovation, excitement, and interesting content. But that bet doesn’t always pay off.
Just like with movies, audiences evolve. Their attention spans are shorter, their standards are higher, and their options are endless. It’s not enough to be familiar anymore. You have to be good. Happy Gilmore 2 drew watches in more than 4 million households in some estimates. But will anyone be talking about it in a month? Unlikely. Will anyone be demanding that Netflix make a Happy Gilmore 3? Doubtful.
And the same can be said for a primetime cable show that relies on the same topics, the same format, the same — well, everything — night after night.
The nostalgia trap isn’t just lazy. It’s dangerous. When a brand stops pushing forward and starts leaning back, it sends a message. That message? “We’ve got nothing new to say, so here’s more of what you already liked.” That might work in the short term, but it kills any momentum for the future.
You’d rather see a network try and fail than never swing at all. Happy Gilmore 2 is the kind of swing that doesn’t aim for something new — it just tries to recreate an old home run.
Nostalgia, in moderation, isn’t a bad thing. But building an entire strategy around it is a losing game. Audiences are too savvy. They can smell when something is manufactured to manipulate their memories instead of offering something real.
The media landscape is changing faster than ever. Streaming is dominant. Podcasts are everywhere. Social platforms break news before any cable outlet gets a chance. And yet, some cable networks are acting like it’s still 2003. That’s a surefire way to get left behind.
To be clear, this isn’t a call to blow everything up. The core principles still matter. But how are those principles delivered? That’s where cable news needs to innovate. Because if the only thing a viewer gets is the same talking heads saying the same things they’ve heard for 20 years, they’re tuning out.
At risk of sounding too hyperbolic, Happy Gilmore 2 is a bit of a canary in the coal mine. It tells us that name recognition and warm memories don’t equal quality. More importantly, they don’t guarantee loyalty. Just because someone loved you once doesn’t mean they’ll stick around if you’re mailing it in today. Audiences today simply have too many choices to accept the same old, same old.
Cable news should take that lesson to heart. Instead of trying to simply rely on the magic of familiar faces, it should be working on what’s next. That means investing in new voices, new formats, and new ways of storytelling. The audience that grew up watching cable news every night is aging out. The next generation isn’t looking for a reboot — they want originality. Something they can’t get anywhere else.
It’s not enough to have a “greatest hits” lineup anymore. You need a fresh album. And if cable news keeps leaning on nostalgia the way Hollywood does, it might find itself just as irrelevant.
Happy Gilmore 2 was made because it was easy. It was safe. But in the end, it wasn’t good. That’s a trap every content creator — whether they’re in movies, television, podcasting, or radio — needs to avoid.
Cable news still matters. But only if it remembers that audiences don’t just want something old they vaguely remember liking. They want something worth watching.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
