UPDATE: Netflix was playing a cruel joke on us? “The Holiday Armadillo has granted your wish: Friends will still be there for you in the US throughout 2019,” the streamer tweeted after the internet panicked for a few hours. Go back to your binging. All is well.
Could we BE anymore disappointed right now? It looks like Friends is leaving Netflix in just a matter of weeks. Yep, in the words of Rachel Green, looks like it’s going to be a crappy new year to us all.
Eagle-eyed viewers (who were probably on their 27th rewatch of the series) noticed Netflix has snuck an expiration date of January 1, 2019 onto the details page of the beloved sitcom that starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc.
UPDATE: According to THR and USA Today, Friends isn’t leaving Netflix…just yet. Details are still sketchy, but it looks like they’ll be there for you on January 1, 2019 after all.
Reaction to the previously listed expiration date, as you can probably imagine, has been swift—and angry.
Ross Geller would be proud.
Netflix
The NBC sitcom ran for 10 seasons from 1994-2004 and still enjoys a healthy life in syndication. It came to the streaming platform on January 1, 2015.
If it leaves, don’t expect Friends to be gone from a streaming service for long. Hulu has been making aggressive grabs to be the streaming home of beloved shows, like 30 Rock, Boy Meets World, ER, King of the Hill, The Golden Girls, Seinfeld, and The Wonder Years. AT&T, which owns Warner Bros., the original studio behind Friends, is also launching its own streaming service.
Request for comment from Netflix was not immediately returned.
You got us good, Netflix.