phrase
Jumping the Shark
The moment a TV show, brand, or franchise visibly peaks and starts to decline.
Origin
In a 1977 episode of Happy Days, Fonzie water-skis over a shark to prove his bravery โ a ratings-stunt subplot that came to symbolize the show's loss of its grounded charm. The phrase 'jumping the shark' was coined by Sean Connolly in 1985 and a website by the same name catalogued the moment for hundreds of TV shows.
Modern usage
Applied to TV, movies, podcasts, restaurants, politicians โ anything that visibly tries to recapture lost relevance with a gimmick. The companion phrase 'nuking the fridge' (from Indiana Jones 4) tried to displace it but never caught on.
In the wild
The brand jumped the shark the day they hired the celebrity spokesperson.โ marketing critique
Tags
decline
tv