I think maybe audiences in general are drifting away a little bit from the "joke-a-minute" style of sitcom writing. Maybe the current onslaught of prestige, character-driven dramas have whet our appetite for slower paced character-driven humor.

For example, one of my favorite comedies in recent years is Search Party, and even though the writing is still pretty damn solid, it's a series mostly carried by acting and characters as opposed to funny one-liners. Meredith Hagner and John Early in particular are AMAZING, and their performance and delivery is what makes the humor work, oftentimes more than the lines themselves. In the hands of lesser actors, it wouldn't have been as effective.