Outnumbered is a successful British Situation Comedy (Sitcom) named so simply because the two parental central protagonists, ‘Sue’ and ‘Pete’ are outnumbered by their three children. It is set in West London and although on the surface offers pluralistic representations in the guise of their unruly children who often intellectually challenge their parents it very much follows a standard genre template established by family based Sitcoms like Butterflies and My Family. There are regular and transitory characters, unseen characters (a common convention) e.g. Sue’s boss in series one and two and familiar, primarily domestic locations. It has received academic criticism for failing to address changing representations in gender and family within society by maintaining conventional representations – they are a nuclear family ( a statistically declining unit) while Pete is a History teacher and Sue is a part time PA, again arguably promoting gender cultural stereotypes.

Channel and Brand Identity

Outnumbered follows on from a historical back catalogue of many successful BBC produced and commissioned Situation Comedies from Fawlty Towers and The Good Life through to Yes Minister, One Foot in the Grave and Keeping Up Appearances through to Only Fools and Horses and the Vicar of Dibley. The list of BBC Sitcoms is endless and for the BBC it has become known as well established, mainstream safe genre programming for over 40 years, cementing their reputation for quality – like Soap Operas Sitcoms require limited production values and are often based on a simple idea that can be easily marketed to target audiences and Outnumbered moves carefully into this equation.
Outnumbered was commissioned (the BBC bought the right to broadcast the programme) by the BBC from Hat Trick Productions, an independent production company who make the programme in 2006. Hat Trick Productions, like the BBC also have an established reputation for producing successful TV Sitcoms, TV Comedy Sketch Shows and TV Comedy Panel Shows like Armstrong and Miller, Have I Got News for You, Father Ted, Drop the Dead Donkey, Harry Enfield’s Television Programme, Room 101 and The Kumars at No. 42. It is written, directed and produced by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin who last collaborated on Drop the Dead Donkey. Although the writers claim a significant amount of Outnumbered is ‘semi improvised’ the representations are conventional which fits well with BBC1’s reputation for broadcasting non challenging, mainstream, ‘middle of the road’ Situation Comedy – to illustrate the characters of Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping up Appearances, Ben Harper in My Family and even Dawn French’s Val in the recent BAFTA award winning Roger and Val offer very stereotypical representations. An argument suggests in the industry if you want challenging Sitcom then maybe C4 would be a better starting point.

Target Audience and Scheduling

The target audience for Outnumbered is C1, C2 and D according to socio-economic grouping and Mainstreamers and Carers according to psycho-graphic research, justified in part by the mainstream representations in the programme. Broadening the audience demographic further the representation of family and BBC1 channel loyalty still in many households in the UK suggests a primarily female with a significant male secondary audience - middle class, 25-55, educated, parents and/or grandparents, urban and city living.
According to BARB (Broadcaster’s Audience Research Board) the first episode received 4.1 million viewers and finished the first series with 2.8 million, still above the average of 2.2 million for this technically post watershed time slot. The word technically has been used because video on demand and streaming has challenged notions of prime time and post watershed. As it turned out however, the initial scheduled time was a surprise - unusual scheduling techniques were used in series one to create hype about the show and make ‘event television’ – all six shows were transmitted inside two weeks after 10pm but this gave the BBC the opportunity of creating audience familiarity with the show and characters through repetition before reverting back to the more conventional weekly broadcast format and timeslot for series two, 9pm and now 9.30pm.
Scheduling techniques carefully resisted the temptation to place this Sitcom into a prime time slot in the knowledge that perhaps it did require more primary than secondary audience reception to fully understand the nature of the humour, dialogue and relationships between characters. Unlike many other Situation Comedies, Outnumbered has no laughter soundtrack directing potentially more passive audiences towards the nature of the humour as part of a shared response. This is further argument that it indeed deliberately targets a more educated, middle class audience. As a result of its continued success a fourth series will air in September 2011.

Audience Appeals / Responses

Recognition of family chaos was one of the original audience appeals of the show with viewers recognising or interpellating themselves within the discourse. Of course familiarity with standard Sitcom conventions was also a major reason for the show’s success, as genre marketing exists in the film industry so it exists within the television industry with additional marketing reputation the BBC has as a quality broadcaster. Outnumbered also has all the hallmarks of traditional Situation Comedy in reference to the ‘innocence’ of the representations – no significant swearing or sexual content with a narrative in fact actually based around the innocence of childhood clearly appealing to parents. Audiences enjoy the ‘naturalness’ of the child actors’ performances and bought into the advertised hype that much of the dialogue was not scripted, with the actors given outlines of the situation and what was going to happen and then encouraged to improvise. I am sure on the show this happens up to a point but within a structured framework.
Intertextual references are evident to the American Sitcom Seinfeld in the fact that within the thirty minute scheduled time frame not very much actually happens. This would appeal to audiences that enjoy dialogue, character and interpersonal relationships rather than a specific three act narrative structure as in Only Fool and Horses where a problem is introduced and developed to its conclusion in the episodic format of the show. It would be difficult, as in Fawlty Towers to talk about a specific, memorable Outnumbered episode, e.g. Fawlty Towers ‘The Germans’ as most audiences like the format of the show itself, not a specific event. Roger and Val try to innovate in this way by offering a narrative about what happens in the half hour after they come home from work but it is still based around a specific event or scenario. With this in mind it is the dullness of the show to many that is so appealing with its bland, non riotously funny mode of address. The Brockmans are a dysfunctional family again drawing intertextual references to The Simpsons; they are struggling to function but like The Simpsons are still together as a family. Having said all this however audiences are positioned into ‘feeling the love’ in that there is a clear feel good element to the show and as in The Simpsons, the two central parent protagonists actually like each other which is a key appeal – cynically the show has surveillance aspects to it and it is actually promoting the ideology of a middle class, nuclear family unit lifestyle.

Applying Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications theory would then suggest the target audience of Outnumbered is more active – in terms of Diversion they are buying into the escapist representations of a chaotic but also loving family unit, responding in terms of personal relationships (there was a considerably positive online response) and also responding in terms of personal identity, perhaps with the star marketing of ‘Pete’ played by stand up comedian Hugh Dennis.
He is known for Punt and Dennis, The Mary Whitehouse Experience, providing voices for Spitting Image, as a panellist on Mock the Week and guest hosting Have I Got News for You. He is also known for playing a regular character (GP Piers Crispin) in another BBC Sitcom, My Hero. With this in mind arguably cultural capital, in terms of audience identification with Hugh Dennis would definitely attract a more middle class, educated target audience to the show.

Format and Technology

Outnumbered series one, two and three are available in DVD formats and can be downloaded using iPlayer – the BBC also markets the programme through blogs (one of the child actors in the show can talk you though the episodes and where he thinks it is going) and the BBC also offers exclusive interviews online and previously unseen footage, clearly understanding the levels of IT literacy and competence amongst its target audience. The BBC has the commercial ability to continue to market its shows in this way until such point that ratings and audience feedback suggest dwindling interest, by which time it will be replaced with yet another Sitcom. As with The Office, an American version of Outnumbered has been planned with the existing writers and directors acting as executive producers, undoubtedly buying into the English cultural stereotyping of gender, social class and family values.
Outnumbered comes from a very successful stable of programmes and although innovative up to a point offers standards Situation Comedy conventions to a mainstream target audience. They (the audience), in turn recognise something that is familiar to all of then – notions of family values and interpersonal relationships cocooned within a humorous framework.