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3 Feb 2024

Distribution

Broadcast

United States

After the produced pilot lived up to NBC's hopes, the series premiered with the name Friends on September 22, 1994, in the coveted Thursday 8:30 p.m. time slot. The pilot aired between Mad About You and Seinfeld,[19] and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers.[3] The series was a huge success throughout its run and was a staple of NBC's Thursday night line-up, dubbed by the network as Must See TV.[160] When Crane told reporters in 2001 that the ninth season was a possibility, critics believed that he was posturing and that at least two of the cast members would not sign on for another season.[97] When it was confirmed that Friends would return for a ninth season, the news was mainly about the amount of money—$7 million per episode—that it took to bring the series back for another season.[97]
After year-long expectations that the ninth season would be the series's last, NBC signed a deal in late December 2002 to bring the series back for a final tenth season. The series' creative team did not want to extend negotiations into the next year and wanted to start writing the rest of the ninth-season episodes and a potential series finale.[161] NBC agreed to pay $10 million to Warner Bros. for the production of each tenth-season episode, the highest price in television history for a 30-minute series.[95] Although NBC was unable to bring in enough advertising revenue from commercials to cover the costs, the series was integral to the Thursday night schedule, which brought high ratings and profits to the other television series.[161] The cast demanded that the tenth season be reduced from the usual 24 episodes to 18 episodes to allow them to work on outside projects.[98]
In fall 2001, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable made a deal with sister network TBS (both were owned by Time Warner) to air the series in rerun syndication. Warner Bros. Domestic Cable announced that it had sold additional cable rights to Friends to Nick at Nite which began airing in the fall of 2011 (unlike the TBS and broadcast syndication airings, Nick at Nite broadcasts of the series, which began airing as part of a seven-night launch marathon on September 5, 2011, replace the end credit tag scenes with marginalized credits featuring promotions for the series and other Nick at Nite programs). Warner Bros. was expected to make $200 million in license fees and advertising from the deal. Nick at Nite paid $500,000 per episode to air the episodes after 6 pm. ET for six years through fall 2017. In syndication until 2005, Friends had earned $4 million per episode in cash license fees for a total of $944 million.[162]
Comedy Central began airing reruns of Friends in October 2019.

International

Having already made huge success in the United States, Friends producers decided to air the show in Europe. It premiered in the United Kingdom on April 28, 1995.[163] Season 1 was broadcast until September 1995 on Channel 4 at 9:30 PM on Friday nights, and immediately was a success. The popularity of the show allowed the theme song by the Rembrandts to hit number 3 on the UK Singles Charts in September 1995.[164]
The popularity of the show in Britain led to an episode being produced in London at the end of the fourth season, starring British actress Helen Baxendale, who became a leading cast member in seasons four and five during her character's relationship with Ross. The show has since aired on different channels in the UK in their original, unedited international versions prior to their being re-edited for US broadcast and syndication. These versions, with additional footage not seen domestically, have aired on such stations as Channel 4, Sky1, E4, and Comedy Central UK.[165][166][167][168][169]
In September 2011, Friends officially ended on E4 after the channel re-ran the series since 2004. Comedy Central took over the rights to air the program from October 2011. Since 2018 Channel 5 started airing the program. In the Republic of Ireland, each season of the show made its European debut on RTÉ2. After 2004 RTÉ2 began to repeat the series from the start before moving over to TV3 and its digital channel 3e in 2010.[170][171] As of February 2015, repeats of the show have returned to RTÉ2 while also broadcasting on Comedy Central Ireland.[172][173]
Season 10's finale in the UK, broadcast on May 28, 2004, was on Channel 4. It was broadcast from 9 pm to 10 pm and attracted Friends' largest UK audiences. It attracted almost 10 million viewers, and is currently standing at Number 10 in Channel 4's most-watched shows. Big Brother was moved to 10 pm, which Friends had beaten. Friends got 9.6 million viewers at 9 pm, while Big Brother 5's launch attracted 7.2 million viewers at 10 pm, which is the most-watched premiere on UK TV ever. However, on January 3, 2007, Celebrity Big Brother 5's launch was watched by 7.3 million viewers, and its eviction on January 19, 2007, was watched by 8.7 million viewers.
Friends has previously aired in Australia on the Seven Network (season 1), Nine Network (season 2–10), Network Ten (2007–09, repeats), Arena, 111 Hits, 9Gem (2012–2018, repeats), and TVHits. It currently airs on 10 Peach and on pay TV channel Comedy, both of which broadcast the high-definition version of the series.[174][175] The show is broadcast on TV2 in New Zealand.[176]
In Canada, the series was broadcast on Global. In later years, it was syndicated on several of its cable sibling networks, including Slice, DTour, and TVTropolis, its previous incarnation.[177][178] The series is now syndicated to Bell Media owned CTV Comedy Channel.
In Latin America, the first seven seasons aired on Sony, and the remaining seasons on Warner.[179] In Brazil, free-to-air networks RedeTV! and SBT also aired a few seasons.
In India, the show is broadcast by Comedy Central at various times. It is the most-watched English language show in the country.[180]
In the Philippines, the show was originally aired on ABC-5 [181][182] from 1996 to 2005 and ETC from 2005 to 2014.
In Greece, the show was broadcast on Star Channel.[183] In Cyprus, Friends aired on CyBC 2 while reruns air on TVOne.[184]
In 2022, Bilibili, iQIYI, Tencent Video, and Youku began distributing edited Friends episodes in China. These edited versions of episodes removed most LGBT content, not edited in original Chinese airings. Chinese fans of the show reacted negatively online.[185]

Remaster

Beginning in March 2012, high definition versions of all 236 Friends episodes were made available to local broadcast stations, starting with the pilot episode. For the remastered episodes, Warner Bros. restored previously cropped images on the left and right sides of the screen, using the original 35 mm film source, to use the entire 16:9 widescreen frame. Because the show was not originally filmed for widescreen, but rather filmed in 4-perf format and protected for 4:3, some cropping problems arise in some shots where information from the top and bottom of the frame is removed, and some expanded shots reveal unintentional artifacts, including set edges, boom mics and body doubles replacing some of the main cast.[186]
In early versions of the HD remasters, there were also a few shots, including chroma effects shots, which were sourced from standard-definition videotape sources, as not all of the footage had been located in time for the remaster. The original film sources for these shots were later rescanned for later broadcast and release.[186] These masters had been airing in New Zealand on TV2 since January 2011, and the earlier HD prints continue to air on Comedy Central in the United Kingdom as of 2020.[187] Netflix added all ten seasons of Friends in high definition to its streaming service in the United States in January 2015 before the platform discontinued the series in late 2019.

Home media

Streaming

In October 2014, Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive officer, Kevin Tsujihara, announced that the company had licensed the North American streaming rights of all ten seasons of Friends to Netflix,[188][189] in a deal said to be worth around $500,000 an episode,[190] or about $120 million in total. The show became available on Netflix from January 1, 2015.[191] The Netflix airings are the versions aired on NBC rather than the longer international versions, as discussed below. The series left Netflix in the US on January 1, 2020, as it began streaming on HBO Max on May 27, 2020.[192] The series left Netflix in Canada for Crave on December 31, 2020.[193]

Blu-ray and DVD

All ten seasons have been released on DVD individually and as a box set. Each Region 1 season release contains special features and are presented in their aforementioned original international broadcast versions, although Region 2 releases are as originally aired domestically. For the first season, each episode is updated with color correction and sound enhancement.[58] A wide range of Friends merchandise has been produced by various companies. In September 1995, WEA Records released the first album of music from Friends, the Friends Original TV Soundtrack, containing music featured in previous and future episodes. The soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 46,[194] and sold 500,000 copies in November 1995.[195]
In 1999, a second soundtrack album entitled Friends Again was released.[196] Other merchandise includes a Friends version of the DVD game "Scene It?", and a quiz video game for PlayStation 2 and PC entitled Friends: The One with All the Trivia.[197][198] On September 28, 2009, a box set was released in the UK celebrating the show's 15th anniversary. The box set contained extended episodes, an episode guide, and original special features.[199]
Warner Home Video released a complete series collection on Blu-ray on November 13, 2012.[200] The collection does not feature the extra deleted scenes and jokes that were included on prior DVD releases, and are therefore presented in their NBC broadcast versions.
In Australia, the original DVD releases were fold out box sets which contained three discs, and released as follows: Season 1 and Season 2 on March 13, 2002, Season 3 and Season 4 on July 9, 2002, Season 5, 6 and 7 on July 29, 2002, Season 8 on March 18, 2003, Season 9 on February 11, 2004, and Season 10 on November 24, 2004. Repackaged sets, slimmed into regular DVD cases also containing three discs were released from 2003 to 2004. Collector's Edition sets were released from September 9, 2003, through to February 1, 2006, these sets contains 4 discs, in fat DVD cases, with extra bonus material.
On October 4, 2006, the individual seasons were repackaged into regular DVD case sets and marked as "Including Brand New Bonus Disc". Once again each individual season were repackaged with new artwork on March 31, 2010. The first complete series boxset on DVD was released around 2004 or 2005, this was titled 'The One With All Ten Seasons" and the packaging was a black box with a lift up lid and contains exclusive packaging for all ten seasons.
The second complete series boxset was released August 21, 2013 and was a red box which contained the 2010 individual season sets inside. On October 1, 2014, was the 20th Anniversary boxset, this was a white box and contained the same 2010 individual releases inside. On October 7, 2015, another boxset was released 'The One With All Ten Seasons", the same name used on the original boxset, however this time slimmed down and contains the 2010 individual releases inside. The outer box is open on insert side for the cases to slide in and out, more of a budget release. In 2016, a repackaged 'The Complete Series' Blu-ray boxset was issued, containing the same 10 individual seasons in the original set, however the box is more cut down and is opened on one side, and also does not include the book that contained the episode guide.
DVD nameEpsDVD release datesBlu-ray release datesRegion 1Region 2Region 4Region ARegion B UKRegion B AustraliaThe Complete First Season24April 30, 2002[201]May 29, 2000[citation needed]October 4, 2006[202]April 30, 2013The Complete Second Season24September 3, 2002[203][204]May 29, 2000[citation needed]October 4, 2006[205]April 30, 2013The Complete Third Season25April 1, 2003[206]May 29, 2000[citation needed]October 4, 2006[207]The Complete Fourth Season24July 15, 2003[208]May 29, 2000[citation needed]October 4, 2006[209]The Complete Fifth Season24November 4, 2003[210]May 29, 2000[citation needed]October 4, 2006[211]The Complete Sixth Season25January 27, 2004[212]July 17, 2000[213]October 4, 2006[214]The Complete Seventh Season24April 6, 2004[215]October 25, 2004[216]October 4, 2006[217]The Complete Eighth Season24November 9, 2004[218]October 25, 2004[219]October 4, 2006[220]The Complete Ninth Season24March 8, 2005[221]October 25, 2004[222]October 4, 2006[223]The Complete Tenth Season18November 15, 2005[224]October 25, 2004[225]October 4, 2006[226]The Complete Series236November 15, 2005
November 14, 2006
(re-issue)
April 16, 2013
(re-issue 2013)
September 17, 2019[227]
(re-issue 2019)October 2, 2006
November 12, 2007
(re-issue)
September 28, 2009
(15th Anniversary Edition)November 13, 2012November 12, 2012November 21, 2012
(JB Hi-Fi exclusive)
August 21, 2013

Spin-off

Main article: Joey (TV series)
LeBlanc hoped that by having his own show, Joey, "probably the least evolved character" on Friends would become more developed.[228]
After the series finale in 2004, LeBlanc signed on for the spin-off series, Joey, following Joey's move to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. Kauffman and Crane were not interested in the spin-off, although Bright agreed to executive produce the series with Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan.[229] NBC heavily promoted Joey and gave it Friends' Thursday 8:00 pm timeslot.[230][231]
The pilot was watched by 18.6 million American viewers,[232] but ratings continually decreased throughout the series's two seasons, averaging 10.2 million viewers in the first season and 7.1 million in the second.[72] The final broadcast episode on March 7, 2006, was watched by 7.09 million viewers;[233] NBC cancelled the series on May 15, 2006, after two seasons, leaving eight episodes unaired.[234] Bright blamed the collaboration between NBC executives, the studio and other producers for quickly ruining the series:[72]

On Friends, Joey was a womanizer, but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn't get a job, couldn't ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard.
— Kevin S. Bright on the reason for Joey's cancellation.[72]

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