TV Shows Like New Girl
If you like New Girl, here are 12 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
FOX · Comedy · New Girl is ended
New Girl works because Zooey Deschanel's Jessica Day is a specific kind of person: relentlessly sincere, a little ridiculous, and genuinely likable without being a pushover. The show's best quality is how it treats optimism as a personality trait worth taking seriously rather than mocking. Jess moves into a loft with three men she barely knows and, instead of treating that as a fish-out-of-water gimmick, the show quickly builds a found family where the dynamic between all four roommates is the real engine. The humor is warm rather than mean, and the writing trusts its ensemble enough to let the supporting characters carry whole episodes.
The best shows like New Girl
1. The Big Bang Theory
Like New Girl, The Big Bang Theory is built around an outsider shaking up a tightly bonded social group, and the comedy comes from the friction and eventual warmth that follows. The ensemble is the point here, and the show is at its best when it lets all four core characters play off one another rather than leaning on any single one. If you liked watching Jess slowly become part of the loft's world, you'll recognize the same dynamic in Penny's arrival next door.
Stream on HBO Max, HBO Max Amazon Channel, YouTube TV, TBS
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2. Will & Grace
The setup is almost identical to New Girl's opening: a woman moves in with her closest friend after a relationship falls apart, and the two figure out adult life together. Will & Grace runs sharper and more cynical than New Girl, but the friendship at its center has the same real affection underneath the bickering. The supporting cast, especially Jack and Karen, fills the same role Nick, Schmidt, and Winston do: they're ridiculous, but you'd miss them immediately.
Stream on Hulu
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3. Rules of Engagement
Rules of Engagement looks at romance from three different vantage points at once, which gives fans of New Girl's relationship dynamics a lot to work with. The tone is warmer than the premise makes it sound, and the interplay between the characters at different relationship stages creates the kind of group comedy New Girl fans tend to enjoy. It's a bit more conventional in structure, but the humor is grounded in people genuinely trying to figure out what they want.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
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4. Three's Company
Three's Company is the direct ancestor of the mixed-gender apartment sitcom, and New Girl's whole premise owes it a debt. A man and two women sharing a flat, navigating misunderstandings and nosy authority figures, is the same basic engine, even if Three's Company commits much harder to farce. It's broader and more reliant on running gags, but the chemistry between the three roommates is warm in the same way the New Girl loft is.
Stream on Peacock Premium, YouTube TV, Philo, Peacock Premium Plus
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5. What I Like About You
Holly and Val's dynamic, a spontaneous, slightly chaotic younger woman moving in with a more buttoned-up older one, has a lot of Jess in it, particularly the way the show treats Holly's impulsiveness as a feature rather than a flaw. The sitcom is lighter and moves faster than New Girl, but the warmth between the two sisters is genuine, and the show has real affection for both of them rather than making either the straight-woman butt of the joke.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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More on shows like New Girl
Fans of New Girl tend to want a few specific things in their next show: a tight group of friends who genuinely like each other, a mix of broad physical comedy and sharper character-based jokes, and some kind of romantic throughline that doesn't take over the whole series. They're usually not looking for cynicism. They want to laugh at people they'd actually want to know.
The shows recommended here all hit at least two of those notes. The Big Bang Theory leans harder into its sitcom structure than New Girl does, but the core appeal is the same: an outsider joins an established social circle and everyone changes a little. Will & Grace is probably the sharpest of the bunch in terms of dialogue, and the setup, a best friend moving in after a relationship falls apart, is almost a direct parallel to Jess's situation. Rules of Engagement takes a broader, more relationship-focused angle, tracking romance at multiple stages at once, which gives it a bit more range than a single-couple comedy. Three's Company is the oldest show here and the one that most commits to pure farce, but its mixed-gender apartment setup is an obvious ancestor of New Girl's premise. What I Like About You swaps the roommates-as-strangers setup for a sisters-as-roommates one, and the energy between an organized older sister and a chaotic younger one maps neatly onto Jess's collision with Schmidt and the gang.
None of these shows are exactly like New Girl, and that's fine. The Big Bang Theory is a more traditional multicamera sitcom. Three's Company relies on misunderstanding-based comedy in a way New Girl largely avoids. But each one has enough warmth, enough ensemble chemistry, and enough genuine affection for its characters that a New Girl fan will find something to hold onto.
More shows like New Girl
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like New Girl?
- The Big Bang Theory is the most popular show similar to New Girl in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like New Girl still on the air?
- Of the 12 shows similar to New Girl listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like New Girl?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.