Young Sheldon's Netflix Surge Surprised 15-Year-Old Star Iain Armitage: 'I'm Not Hip with the Kids' (Exclusive)

When Netflix rereleased Young Sheldon in November 2023, the sitcom found a huge new audience — a fact that took star Iain Armitage completely by surprise.

The teen actor, who plays a younger version of Jim Parsons’ character Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, exclusively tells PEOPLE the moment he knew the CBS spinoff was a hit on Netflix.  

“Randomly, a friend of mine was like, 'Yo, I saw your show on Netflix,' and I was like, 'It's on Netflix in the U.K. I don't know [if] it's on Netflix in the U.S.," he says, adding, "I kind of didn't even really know we were on Netflix until I looked, and I don't tend to watch much TV. I don't do any of my own social media. It's all run by my mom and also by sort of my people, I guess. That sounds so weird, but I'm not hip with the kids, so it's kind of funny to see that it really has blown up so much.”

Young Sheldon, which is entering its seventh and final season, debuted on Netflix, has been a regular fixture on the streaming service’s Top 10 TV Shows in the U.S. Today chart. Its fans now include Shannen Doherty, who said during a panel at MegaCon in early February that she had binge-watched and loved the show.

This kind of adulation has Armitage, 15, feeling “honored,” although he also admits his friends, who are either watching the show for the first time or rewatching it, will make references to earlier seasons, and he won’t always catch them.

“I have friends now that'll be making references to season 2, and I'm like, ‘What are you talking about?’” he says. “They're like, ‘How do you not know? You were on that.’ I'm like, ‘It was six years ago. Geez.’

What’s less surprising to Armitage is the sitcom’s wide appeal. Although Young Sheldon revolves around a once-in-a-generation genius who lives in a “sometimes dysfunctional family” in Texas in the ‘90s, there are themes many people can still relate to, its teen star explains.  

“Pretty much everyone, no matter who you are, can somewhere relate to at least some themes of this show," he says. "Everyone kind of has feelings of maybe feeling out of place or who are kind of like Sheldon. You don't have to be a genius to sometimes have a hard time connecting with people.”

He continues, “I know statistically that somewhere there must be somebody who had a hard day today or is kind of sad or feeling down … that's going on Netflix or going on TikTok or going on cable or whatever they're doing and seeing our show,. Hopefully, that can turn their day around, because sometimes all you need is a little bit of a laugh.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Season 7 of Young Sheldon premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.