Darren Star On ‘Younger’s Streaming Resurgence & Prospects Of Revival

Of the hundreds of half-hour comedies available on streaming, one title dominated the U.S. rankings for the first five months of 2025, Darren Star‘s 2015 TV Land series Younger, whose seven seasons took seven of the Top 10 spots in U.S. viewership for January-May for its Netflix run, according to data recently released by Luminate. Season 1 ranked the highest, at #3, logging 2.4B views, with the rest of the seasons charting at #5-#10 with viewership between 1.4B-1.9B. (The other three shows in the Top 10 were Netflix’s originals Running Point, #1; The Four Seasons, #2; and Cobra Kai S6, #4.)

Younger‘s ascend was almost instant after all seven seasons of the series, starring Sutton Foster as a 40-year old single mom pretending to be 26 in order to land an assistant job in publishing, were made available on Netflix domestically in January, almost a decade after the show made its debut on TV Land in March 2015. The series, also starring Debi Mazar, Nico Tortorella, Hilary Duff, Miriam Shor and Peter Hermann, was a Netflix U.S. Top 10 fixture for weeks earlier this year.

Star, who praised Younger‘s original run on TV Land as “a wonderful, wonderful experience, because they were really supportive,” had been envisioning the series eventually getting on a streamer while he was making it for the Paramount-owned cable channel — and he built it that way.

“It had a small, loyal fan base, but it was restricted,” he said of Younger‘s run on TV Land. “I was happy to have done as many seasons as we did because I hoped that when it was all done, that it would find a second home, that they would find a streaming platform. In fact, when I was doing Younger, it was made to be bingeable, every episode sort of had a cliffhanger. I thought, Oh, this could get on streaming, it’s going to feel very streamable and bingeable. So I was hoping but you never know — I mean, my dream was to see the show get acquired by Netflix, and it was wonderful when it happened. I wasn’t sure, I could imagine how well it would do, but I just wanted it to have an opportunity to be seen, exposed to a wider audience.”

‘Younger’s “surprising” streaming success

Seeing Younger take seven of the top 10 comedy slots on the Luminate ranker “was surprising to me,” Star admitted, adding. “I mean, anecdotally, from people that I spoke to, I knew people were finding and watching it, but I didn’t know that because Netflix doesn’t necessarily share those numbers, so they were a nice surprise.”

There will be more ratings information in the coming months when Netflix reveals program rankings for the first six months of 2025 in its semi-annual viewership data dump.

This is not the first time Younger has been exposed to streaming. After six seasons on TV Land, the seventh and final season ran on Hulu, in addition to Paramount+, with both platforms also carrying previous seasons. But the show didn’t resonate for them the way it has done on Netflix.

“I just feel like people weren’t finding it on Hulu,” Star said. “It does speak to the power of Netflix and the algorithm, I guess, I really don’t know why it didn’t. People didn’t have an awareness, I remember it being on Hulu, and even I would have a hard time finding it. On Netflix, it was on my homepage.”

Timing also may have helped. At the heart of Younger is Foster character Liza’s on-and-off romantic relationship with her significantly younger tattoo artist neighbor Josh (Tortorella). Such May-December romances have been in the zeitgeist recently through movies like The Idea of You, A Family Affair and Lonely Planet, starring the likes of Anne Hathaway, Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern, respectively.

“I don’t think those romances ever get old,” Star said. “I would see a lot of those movies come out with a similar premise — not a completely similar premise — but it just spoke to the strength of the idea and looking at relationships from a different point of view.”

Reflecting back on Younger’s Netflix performance, Star called it a “wonderful validation.”

“I hear about it, out in the world, there’s so much conversation around it,” he said. “Once it landed on Netflix, it did sort of blow up among the majority of the audience, which is the majority of people out there that hadn’t seen it or were aware of it; they just assumed it was a new series.”

That is despite some cultural references on the show that hint at its age. They don’t make it dated, Star argued.

“I feel like really good shows aren’t dated, I feel like enduring shows have a timeless quality about them,” he said. “And I do feel like the whole culture clash still has relevance; I think it’s a timeless theme, whether the specifics change or not, I think the themes are recognizable.”

What’s more, “I think the other thing about the show that’s great is that it’s a show that really went past its premise,” Star added. “The series continued way past the premise of a woman lying about her age to get her job because she’s not anymore.”

Had Younger indeed been a new series on Netflix, it may have been in Emmy contention right now, something it never got into during its original run, with no major awards recognition for performers like Sutton or perennial scene stealer Shor.

“It was frustrating. I felt like it was a little bit invisible, out in the world,” Star said. “It got great reviews; I mean, on Rotten Tomatoes, it was like 98% for the whole seven seasons. It always got wonderful reviews; it’s actually the best reviewed series I’ve ever done, and so it’s ironic that the reviews just didn’t translate into awareness or awards. But I’m super, super gratified that it’s just finding an audience because ultimately, that’s all you really want for your shows, is that they find an audience sooner or later.”

Star gave props to Netflix where he has a global original series hit with Emily In Paris. With HBO’s Sex and the City, which he also created, also available on Netflix in the U.S., Younger further expanded his footprint on the platform with comedies about women juggling career and love. (Star’s list of popular series also include Beverly Hills, 90210 and spinoff Melrose Place.)

“I’m grateful to Netflix for having taken a chance on [Younger],” Star said. “I knew the executives there were fans for a long time, and there have been discussions about getting it on Netflix for years. And it finally happened. The real surprising thing to me is to look at that those numbers of that chart and see how well it performed against everything else on streaming, that did kind of blow me away.”

Could success beget more ‘Younger’?

While he got a final season order during Younger‘s original run, Star couldn’t quite end the series on his own terms as the pandemic hit, impacting production, most notably leading to the abrupt exit of Shor whose character had to be written off. Another top TV creator, Gilmore Girls’ Amy Sherman-Palladino who left her popular WB/CW series ahead of its final season, got a chance to do a new final chapter with the four movies for Netflix where the mother-daughter dramedy remains a staple.

Could Younger‘s successful run on Netflix lead to a followup?

Noting that any conversations would be between Netflix and series producer MTV Entertainment Studios, Star admitted that “it would be a fun conversation to have.”

Netflix sources have indicated that, while Younger has indeed been on the streamer executives’ licensing wish list for awhile, there no current plans for more. Star, who confirmed that “they haven’t approached me about it yet,” would be open to the idea if it presents itself.

“I would do some sort of revival,” he said. “It’s something I would be very excited to pursue, and just in these conversations I’ve had with the cast, it’s something they would be excited to do if the timing was right for everyone. I have to say, the cast had the most amazing chemistry with each other, and it was a real, delightful experience for all of us to make that show together.”

Star did end Younger with the scene he had had in mind from the start as Liza and Josh recreated their chance meeting at the neighborhood bar from the pilot after she had spent the second half of the series in a love triangle with him and her publisher boss Charles (Hermann), hinting that she may ultimately end up with Josh.

“It left it open ended, it wasn’t a definitive choice, but there is definitely a full circle feeling to it,” Star said of the final scene.

He has ideas how to continue the series, which ended with Charles promoting Liza to Editor-in-Chief.

“I think that she’s now running the company; it’s still his company, and she’s running it,” Star said. “So I do think that there’s a lot of story; there’s a new chapter for those characters.”

After Younger came to an end, a spinoff centered on the next chapter of Duff’s character was explored. It ultimately didn’t go forward.

As time has passed, would Star consider titling a potential followup Older?

“I think that’s what we’d have to call it at this point,” he replied.