It’s six days into August, and the temperature has dropped by like two degrees. Do you know what that means? The internet is preparing itself for its favorite seasonal ritual: rewatching Gilmore Girls.
Gilmore Girls Fall is upon us.
Just as at the end of each fall, memes and jokes about Queen of Christmas Mariah Carey “defrosting” because “it’s tiiiiime” for “All I Want for Christmas Is You” to dominate the holidays, fans of Gilmore Girls are launching a similar viral seasonal countdown for their beloved, very autumnal show.
Every year, as summer starts to fade and the first whiff of pumpkin spice hits the air, fans crave a return to Stars Hollow, the cozy, fictional Connecticut town where the leaves are always crunchy, the coffee is always brewing, and everyone talks a mile a minute.
For the few who haven’t seen it (seriously, where have you been?), Gilmore Girls follows Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), a fast-talking, coffee-loving single mom, and her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel), a bookish teen with Ivy League dreams.
Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Daniel, the show aired on The WB and then The CW from 2000 to 2007 and has since become the internet’s unofficial comfort show for fall.
And there’s data to prove it.
According to research conducted by The Hollywood Reporter, the show, which currently has its home on Netflix, was among the most-watched series on the platform from 2021 to 2023—with its viewership spiking during, you guessed it, in the fall.
More specifically, viewership increases by an average of 14 percent during fall and winter compared to spring and summer.
If hard data doesn’t convince you that Gilmore Girls is the show to binge during the fall, then take a gander on social media, where, every year, fans post about preparing for a re-watch.
“Relax diva, it’s almost Gilmore Girls season,” one person captioned their TikTok edit.
Another person began counting down the days until September started (56 at the time of posting).
It’s truly a lifestyle for some people.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Sherman-Palladino explained that series’ cozy, fall aesthetic—from Lorelai and Rory’s mass consumption of pancakes to pumpkin patches and snowy outdoor scenes—wasn’t an accidental choice.
After selling Gilmore Girls to The WB, Sherman-Palladino and her husband took a trip to Connecticut during the fall. Ultimately, this trip went on to define the series.
“We encountered that small-town feel, that feel of hayrides and pumpkin patches and hot apple cider,” she said. “It almost felt ridiculous — the jaded woman that I am, I was like ‘This is like central casting laid this out for us. People don’t live like this.’ But they do in some places, and that creatively fed me the rest of the show."
On top of its warm and snug vibes, many people find “comfort” in the series because nothing really bad ever happens in it. The height of emotional turmoil in the series is Lorelai breaking up with her diner-owning boyfriend, Luke (Scott Patterson). Outside of that, things are relatively low stakes for the Gilmores.
While it may be tempting to write off the annual re-watch as nothing more than millennial nostalgia, the show continues to find a fanbase amongst Gen Z.
Yanic Truesdale, the actor who portrayed the grumpy French concierge that worked alongside Lorelai, told the New York Times that he runs into young fans all the time.
“I’m always amazed that 10-year-olds, 15-year-olds—kids—are watching it as if it just came out," he commented.
Truesdale went on to describe Gilmore Girls as “the show that will never die.” And he’s right. As long as the leaves continue to fall, so too will the annual re-watch.
