'Friends' to Stay On Another Season

By David Bauder
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - NBC's six "Friends" aren't breaking up yet. The network announced a surprise agreement Saturday to keep the top-rated comedy on the air for another season.

No details of the agreement between the network, Warner Brothers Productions, Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and the six lead actors were released. But NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks confirmed the deal had been sealed early Saturday morning.


It was a welcome holiday present for NBC, which counts on "Friends" to kick off its powerful Thursday night lineup each week.


Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer are all being paid $1 million per episode this season.

When NBC announced in February that "Friends" would be back this fall, it was said then that this would be the final year.

But in the months to follow, NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker made certain the door remained open to a return. He consistently refused, in speaking publicly, to rule out the chance it would return.

Some of the actors had also seemed warm to the idea. Kudrow, interviewed on NBC's "Today" show in recent weeks, noted how the sitcom filming schedule, with its regular hours, was ideal for a young mother.

Although Aniston drew strong reviews last summer for her performance in "The Good Girl," none of the actors has established a solid career in the movies.

The last two seasons have been a revival for the series. It drew strong reviews last season and was the No. 1 series of the year in the Nielsen Media Research rankings. "Friends" also won its first Emmy as best comedy series and Aniston won for best comedy actress.

The series is generally the highest-rated comedy this year, although the CBS drama, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," has supplanted it as television's most popular show.

This season Aniston's character, Rachel, is dealing witha motherhood after giving birth last May. Cox and Perry's characters, a married couple, had to deal with a separation when his job transferred him to the Midwest.

Although the same thing was said when February's agreement was reached, Marks said Saturday that "I'm sure it will be the final year."

The series of six close-knit pals living in New York City spawned many imitators at its initial success — including on NBC — but no show could match its formula for success. The show is already being seen frequently in syndication.

Dang it! I want this show to end! There is no reason to keep going if they don't want it to. Can't TV people just find something else? Its all for the money, and i'm sick of it. It steals away other shows that are probably better than it. Grr.

Originally posted by Frasier W. Crane
Dang it! I want this show to end! There is no reason to keep going if they don't want it to. Can't TV people just find something else? Its all for the money, and i'm sick of it. It steals away other shows that are probably better than it. Grr.

Ditto to all you said FWC.

Originally posted by Jenny


Ditto to all you said FWC.
Thanks! At least I have someone supporting me. :wave:

I'm kind of glad its getting another year, but unless the shows get better I really think they should stop.

2 years ago "Friends" was my favorite sitcom of all-time but now it's #5 (#1:Curb Your Enthusiasm,#2:That's My Bush,#3:Good Morning Miami,#4:Andy Ricter Controls The Universe,#5:Friends).It's just declined in quality and everything else.I was actually WAITING for it to end! Didn't they say it was the last season 4 years ago? LOL! Anyway here's to another 9 seasons! :p

Originally posted by jimmiegirl48
I think Friends has overstayed its welcome by now. :rolleyes:

I second that.

Wow, this is very great (and surprising) news!

Ahhh I can't believe it!

Friends hasn't overstayed it's welcome, since it is the top-rated comedy right now.

I do agree, the salaries are WAY too high!!

But this is good news!

Originally posted by Frasier W. Crane
Dang it! I want this show to end! There is no reason to keep going if they don't want it to. Can't TV people just find something else? Its all for the money, and i'm sick of it. It steals away other shows that are probably better than it. Grr.

I agree with you 100%.

Originally posted by Frasier W. Crane
Can't TV people just find something else? Its all for the money, and i'm sick of it. It steals away other shows that are probably better than it. Grr.

NBC has no other new sitcoms to fill the void if Friends leaves. There have been no new comedies this season that have taken off.
As far as I know, just about all of the sitcoms that came out this Fall are either cancelled or on hiatus, which is just as good as canceled. I bet you if there were a few bonafied new hit sitcoms on NBC this Fall, "Friends" would not have been brought back another season.

And as far as any other shows that Frinds is stealing away from, aside from say "Scrubs," "Will and Grace" and "Frasier," there aint much else happening on the Peacock Network...

I like most of the episodes, but these 6 people are getting paid WAY too much money. One million dollars an episode? They don't even deserve half of that for an entire season. What a bunch of greedy, money-hungry people. That alone is enough to make me quit watching the show altogether, reruns and new ones

....Meangya.:rolleyes:


*Bangs head* Why why why why WHY?!?!? *breaksdown*

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Originally posted by TJL


NBC has no other new sitcoms to fill the void if Friends leaves. There have been no new comedies this season that have taken off.
As far as I know, just about all of the sitcoms that came out this Fall are either cancelled or on hiatus, which is just as good as canceled. I bet you if there were a few bonafied new hit sitcoms on NBC this Fall, "Friends" would not have been brought back another season.

And as far as any other shows that Frinds is stealing away from, aside from say "Scrubs," "Will and Grace" and "Frasier," there aint much else happening on the Peacock Network...

Yeah, you do have a point there about the new shows. It's just that they cancel shows too damn quickly. I don't watch many new shows, the only one I watch is Birds of Prey on WB.

I'll take Birds of Prey for example. I think BOP started out pretty good. Yet they are going to cancel it. They'll finish up the 13 eps in Jan. and then drop it. They dropped it too soon. The show had promise and instead of keeping it and trying to work out some of the bad things about the show, they just drop it.

Can you imagine some of the long running shows of the past if the were canceled before they even show 7 or 8 episodes?

The bottom line is, and this is most unfortunate...

If you don't win your timeslot, you're doomed.

Friends is a cash cow, so it's not surprising to me that NBC renewed the show. Friends also has millions of fans.
If I don't like a show, I don't care if it's cancelled or not. There's this little piece of equipment....it's called a remote control.

A 10th year of this show? What non-illegal things can I do to get these people off the air?

Originally posted by jimmiegirl48
I think Friends has overstayed its welcome by now. :rolleyes:

Who welcomed it?

I'm glad they're coming back. An even 10 years of Friends. 9 Seasons would've felt incomplete.

When you think about it though, the cast and crew are very smart.....They've been threating the end since the spring of 2000, but just like when you're buying a new car, you have to threaten to leave to get a better deal. So when contracts are up they threaten to get more money. So their intentions were probably to never leave in the first place, but just to get more money. Because if the cast really wanted to stop doing the show, they would've done so back at the end of the 6th season.

Originally posted by shocolah
I like most of the episodes, but these 7 people are getting paid WAY too much money. One million dollars an episode? They don't even deserve half of that for an entire season. What a bunch of greedy, money-hungry people. That alone is enough to make me quit watching the show altogether, reruns and new ones

No one is worth $1 million an episode to do something that is pretty effortless by now.

Originally posted by JT


Who welcomed it?
Just a wild guess, but that would probably be the millions of fans that have made it a hit show for all of these years.

Originally posted by dawsongirl


No one is worth $1 million an episode to do something that is pretty effortless by now.
An actor is worth a zillion dollars if a network or a movie studio make a profit. The folks at NBC aren't just being nice guys paying them all that money--it's worth it to them.
Julia Roberts phones in her performances for 20+ million per movie that probably take a couple of months of her time.
Lots of salaries seem outrageous to me too. Athletes, for example. I do know what you mean, it is crazy but it's all big business and the bottom line.
:crazy:

Let's think about it though, if you were on the highest rated sitcom, and you were making a million per episode, you wouldn't be complaining that 1 mill is too much.

Friends is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
OK, get your head out of the gutter.

It has been pretty lame this year and last year to tell you the truth.

OBVIOUSLY this is MY opinion and for all you who like it it now, good for you.

Does anyone else feel like it is just milking it? Everything is going through the motions?

And Jennifer Aniston did NOT deserve an Emmy.

If anyone, Matt Leblanc did.

Matthew Perry looks like he is about to drop dead half the time. The man has more issues than Time Magazine.

YAY! I can't wait for the next season!

I don't agree with the fact that they don't deserve 1 Million an ep. I mean C'mon Kelsey Grammar gets 1.6 mill an ep for Frasier, which is WAYYYY too much for a show with So-so ratings.

Although I would like to see Friends off of the air waves... I bet so much that when the show is in its tenth season NBC is gonna play this cat and mouse game with the media again;. NBC MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!

Originally posted by dlemond
Matthew Perry looks like he is about to drop dead half the time. The man has more issues than Time Magazine.
LOl.:lol:

I agree-- theyre not worth $1M an episode. Nor is Julia Roberts worth $20M a movie. Im sorry, but those are just ridiculous amounts of money to be taking in each week or two. Think of the celebrities back in the 50s-70s who made the path for the TV shows of today (including Friends)..how much did THEY make?

I agree with Janice--just dont watch it. I dont watch it. The thing that bugs me though is everywhere I look..THERE it is. Its unavoidable!! Ya, I agree the show has some funny moments, but they make it seem like theres no other show like it! Its not like its a *creative* show, IMO.

There's a picture of all 6 of them on the cover of yesterday's newspaper. It's a small picture, but three of them are sipping out of one soda and the other three are sipping out of another. How totally and completely gaggy can they get???!!! I just want to blow that picture up a few sizes and turn it into a dart board.

Originally posted by Janice

Just a wild guess, but that would probably be the millions of fans that have made it a hit show for all of these years.

It was a....joke for those of us....who don't like it.....

The past few years, I was so tired always hearing about Friends. Now, the cast just bores me.

I am though, somewhat biased toward Matt Perry, because he is from where I'm from, and he cheers for the same hockey team that I do.

From what I read from people that still watch Friends, they say most of the cast, with the exception of Matt Leblanc, just go through the motions and phone in their performances.

The cast comes back for the $$$$$, and because they are not exactly successful in movies.

Thank god for classic TV.

Originally posted by JT


It was a....joke for those of us....who don't like it.....
Wait...you mean to say that some people don't like Friends? j/k

Happy Holidays JT :santa:

Originally posted by lurkernomore
Thank god for classic TV.

Here Here! :cheers:

I think it was a no brainer for NBC. Love it or hate it, Friends is still a big hit.

Originally posted by shocolah
There's a picture of all 6 of them on the cover of yesterday's newspaper. It's a small picture, but three of them are sipping out of one soda and the other three are sipping out of another. How totally and completely gaggy can they get???!!! I just want to blow that picture up a few sizes and turn it into a dart board.

Oh my God.....:lol: I laughed my butt off at your post shocolah. :lol:

Here's a link to the picture:

http://www.nbc.com/Friends/photo/3.html

yay!! They are gonna be back again!! so excited they are gonna be on of television's longest running shows.

I think Friends should end. I think the show should have ended about the time Monica and Chandler got married. Now it's like everyone's going through the motions for their millions.

People Magazine did a cover story on Friends recently. One part I thought was funny was this quote from Jeff Zucker. He said something about how Coach ran for a zillion years, nobody cared when it ended, and how he didn't want that to happen to Friends. Of course, we all know that can't happen with Friends. Some of us wish it could, but it would take another 5-10 years to drive the ratings into the ground.

Originally posted by Freakzilla
Some of us wish it could, but it would take another 5-10 years to drive the ratings into the ground.

Not necessarily. TV is never a sure thing. Look at some examples.

Cosby Show fell from #5 to #18 in one season.
Roseanne fell from #10 to #31 in two seasons.
Golden Girls fell from #10 to #30 in one season.
Maude fell from #4 to below #60 in one season.
Here's Lucy fell from #15 to #29 in one season.
Family Matters fell from #15 to #27 in one season.
Fresh Prince fell from #20 to #45 in one season.

Not saying that this would happen to Friends, but nothing is impossible when it comes to tv. I tell myself that every time I realize Murphy Brown and Designing Women were actually top 10 shows at one point. Scary thought.

Originally posted by Will and Grace Fanatic
yay!! They are gonna be back again!! so excited they are gonna be on of television's longest running shows.

Well, not really. They have a LOT of TV shows that have lasted longer than "Friends." The longest running, I think, is "(The) Guiding Light" which has been on for 50 years (1952- ).

Wait...you mean to say that some people don't like Friends? j/k

Happy Holidays JT

*digs a hole and throws a hatchet in*

'nuff said

Originally posted by Will and Grace Fanatic
yay!! They are gonna be back again!! so excited they are gonna be on of television's longest running shows.

I think you mean longest running SITCOM.Can you imagine "Friends" on for 50+ years? LOL! Anyway the longest running sitcoms are "Ozzie and Harriet" (14 years) and "The Simpsons" (14 years+) I'm pretty sure anyway.

You guys are right..Friends "sucks"...it has "overstayed it's welcome"..etc..etc....


The fact it still gets critical praise and is STILL high in the ratings(meaning MANY people watch it and love it) means nothing..:p



:rolleyes:

Originally posted by jewlmc
The fact it still gets critical praise and is STILL high in the ratings(meaning MANY people watch it and love it) means nothing..:p

It means nothing to non-fans of the show, but it means plenty to its fans.

Originally posted by Jenny


Yeah, you do have a point there about the new shows. It's just that they cancel shows too damn quickly. I don't watch many new shows, the only one I watch is Birds of Prey on WB.

I'll take Birds of Prey for example. I think BOP started out pretty good. Yet they are going to cancel it. They'll finish up the 13 eps in Jan. and then drop it. They dropped it too soon. The show had promise and instead of keeping it and trying to work out some of the bad things about the show, they just drop it.

Can you imagine some of the long running shows of the past if the were canceled before they even show 7 or 8 episodes?

A lot of shows were taken off of FOX last season that were in the top 20 raitings, and only had like 50 episodes to show for it. I'll bet if they let these shows bloom, they could have went to number 1.

Some people have argued that if "Friends" has 24 million regular viewers and industry respect and actual awards, that automatically means it's a good show. If the group is always right, then maybe music schools should use Eminem insted of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It means plenty to me that people actually watch this bilious program. It, along with Full House, Malcolm in the Middle, and The Bachelor, to name a few shows, shows that some people will watch anything. This and other shows are symptoms of a much larger problem: people not demanding better TV shows (or music, or movies, etc.). I think that even popular culture needs to have some substance. "Friends" has none. The writing is as weak as a poorly-brewed cup of coffee, the characters one-note and irritating, and the acting even worse than that of the community theatre plays I used to do. And then that theme song...

This show has won an "Outstanding Comedy Series" Emmy. This same award has been given to I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, MASH, Cheers, The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls, but the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have turned it into a popularity contest so "Friends" could win. Will they start giving Peabody awards to America's Funniest Home Videos and Joe Millionaire now?

On the other hand, if 24 million people in this country watch it, then 257 million Americans do not. God bless America!

Originally posted by Attmay
Some people have argued that if "Friends" has 24 million regular viewers and industry respect and actual awards, that automatically means it's a good show. If the group is always right, then maybe music schools should use Eminem insted of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It means plenty to me that people actually watch this bilious program. It, along with Full House, Malcolm in the Middle, and The Bachelor, to name a few shows, shows that some people will watch anything. This and other shows are symptoms of a much larger problem: people not demanding better TV shows (or music, or movies, etc.). I think that even popular culture needs to have some substance. "Friends" has none. The writing is as weak as a poorly-brewed cup of coffee, the characters one-note and irritating, and the acting even worse than that of the community theatre plays I used to do. And then that theme song...

This show has won an "Outstanding Comedy Series" Emmy. This same award has been given to I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, MASH, Cheers, The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls, but the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have turned it into a popularity contest so "Friends" could win. Will they start giving Peabody awards to America's Funniest Home Videos and Joe Millionaire now?

On the other hand, if 24 million people in this country watch it, then 257 million Americans do not. God bless America!
Well, of all the viewers watching TV on Thursdays at 9, most of them are tuned into Friends. Those viewers think it's a good show. Nobody stated anything different.
The Eminem/Mozart comparison is apples and oranges and silly. Eminem has a ton of fans (myself not included), but nobody is claiming he's in the league of Mozart. There is no "the group is always right" because there is no right or wrong here. Loving or hating Friends is an opinion...and that's a fact.
Some people, such as yourself, find the show "bilious...the writing weak as a poorly-brewed cup of coffee, the characters one-note and irritating, and the acting even worse..."
Others find it entertaining. It's more than a little insulting to claim that because people like this show that it's symptomatic of a "larger problem: people not demanding better TV shows (or music, or movies, etc.)"
There's no problem here. Millions of people love the show. God knows how many hate it. It's not a social problem. We're dealing with opinions here.
Just because you don't find any value in the show, it's a cheap shot to tells fans of Friends that they'll "watch anything".
I'll never understand how people can argue over whether a show is good or not. It's like a person hating chocolate ice cream, and thinking everyone else should hate it too. It's a matter of personal taste.
I don't like I Love Lucy. I never did. If I ever said I did on this site, I was being polite, but the truth is, the show bores me to tears; however, I wouldn't dream of stating, as a fact, to fans of the show that it's a bad show. The reason is because I realize that it's a great show to the fans, and a bad show to me. No right or wrong--just opinions.
This may be a shock, but I'm not even a big fan of Friends. I watched it the first few years, and I'll catch an episode here and there now. I think it's decent enough entertainment. I don't think the world will get thrown off it's axis if it stays on another season. There are a lot worse shows out there, in my opinion.
I won't "watch anything" either. I mix up it. Lots of movies (comedy, drama, foreign), TV documentaries, all the HBO drama shows, The Practice, The West Wing, American Dreams, vintage sitcoms, Meet The Press, lots of History Channel, The Jetsons. Some heavy stuff...some mind candy.
What I defend is a person's right to their opinion without the insinuation that they're a flock of sheep being spoonfed mindless entertainment.
You hate Friends. Fine by me. There's no need to insult those who do. I also happen to think that Friends has a catchy theme song.

Originally posted by Attmay
Some people have argued that if "Friends" has 24 million regular viewers and industry respect and actual awards, that automatically means it's a good show. If the group is always right, then maybe music schools should use Eminem insted of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

It means plenty to me that people actually watch this bilious program. It, along with Full House, Malcolm in the Middle, and The Bachelor, to name a few shows, shows that some people will watch anything. This and other shows are symptoms of a much larger problem: people not demanding better TV shows (or music, or movies, etc.). I think that even popular culture needs to have some substance. "Friends" has none. The writing is as weak as a poorly-brewed cup of coffee, the characters one-note and irritating, and the acting even worse than that of the community theatre plays I used to do. And then that theme song...

This show has won an "Outstanding Comedy Series" Emmy. This same award has been given to I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, All in the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, MASH, Cheers, The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls, but the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences have turned it into a popularity contest so "Friends" could win. Will they start giving Peabody awards to America's Funniest Home Videos and Joe Millionaire now?

On the other hand, if 24 million people in this country watch it, then 257 million Americans do not. God bless America!

I'm going to admit that I'm not a Friends fan, but it's insulting to the Friends fans when you say that they'll watch anything. Nobody watches anything just to be watching something. I'm not sure if that part makes sense, but watching a paid program is nothing. How many people do you know watches paid programs and considers them to be their favorite show?

Somebody sure is tuning in and somebody sure likes Friends. I doubt it would've lasted very long if everybody hated it and everybody thought it was stupid. I should also point out that the humor factor has changed drastically. Shows like Friends, you'll probably see the sex jokes and other jokes like that. If you catch an episode of All in the Family, you'll see that they did have a couple of sex jokes- but they had other jokes as well. All in the Family tackled serious topics such as rape, death, homosexuality etc. Friends is just a goofy show. I'm not sure if they tackle the serious topics because I don't watch the show. Maybe that's why people tune into the goofy Friends show to get away from the real life pressure of living in this world. You turn on the news and you'll just see story after story about bad crap. People tune into Friends or any other show to escape the reality for 30 minutes. We watch the show and we're taken on an adventure with the cast. We can forget about the real world for awhile.

I see you mentioned Eminem in your post. I like Eminem. He's the only rapper that I can tolerate and I listen to his music. If you ask me who the bigger influence is in music between Elvis Presley or Eminem, of course I'll admit Elvis is. Elvis wasn't a rapper, but he did influence several genres of music. I like Eminem, but that hasn't blinded my vision of other musicians. Who knows, maybe Eminem will be considered a heavy influence on music someday. I'm not saying he'll be the God of Rap or whatever. I'm just saying that he could be an influence one day. Then again, he could just be riding the waves and crash down after a few more years.

jmo

First, I want to say I really enjoyed reading the last couple of posts.

What I would really like to know is how many adults watch Friends. I am in the same age group as the cast of Friends, and I wish they would leave already.

Friends may be coming back, but I find I do not hear about the show as much as I used to.

I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of Friends, however, I'll happily admit it is a highly successful show. Ratings do mean everything nowadays and there are several shows would sell their left arm to get a rating like friends.

257 million people may not watch Friends, but when was the last show that got a 60.0 rating? Saying that Friends "sucks" is just an opinion. Just like saying Friends is "great." You cannot deny the success that it has had and still has. There have been plenty of shows that stuck around a long time and suffered because of it. Friends hasn't yet.

Originally posted by Brian Damage
I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of Friends, however, I'll happily admit it is a highly successful show. Ratings do mean everything nowadays and there are several shows would sell their left arm to get a rating like friends.

257 million people may not watch Friends, but when was the last show that got a 60.0 rating? Saying that Friends "sucks" is just an opinion. Just like saying Friends is "great." You cannot deny the success that it has had and still has. There have been plenty of shows that stuck around a long time and suffered because of it. Friends hasn't yet.

Very good post! Exactly right.

Personally, I think they need to pull the plug on Friends. What was funny when these people were in their 20's isn't funny now that they are in their 30's. Time to grow up and move on. They really will be a sad lot if they let this show continue until they are in their 40"s.

YAY!! im super happy now. i love this show. once this one ends, tv is almost doomed with a few exeptions

as a big friends fan, i do admitt this season hasnt proved to be all that well. i say that half the episodes werent even that funny and i gave them few laughs but still i love this show no matter what. if it stays yay! if it goes.... ill be able to watch reruns

Friends isnt going away people, no matter if it ends, it will always be one of the most reran sitcoms

Originally posted by Brian Damage
I think it was a no brainer for NBC. Love it or hate it, Friends is still a big hit.

Ditto.

I'm not that thrilled with the show period, but It's not the worse show out there. I'd choose classic TV anyday, but we all just have to accept the fact that Friends is here, it does amazingly well. But I think the 10th season is really a waste. NBC is milking it for all it's worth (can you blame them?) and so is the cast (again, can you blame them?) it's a hit, and both parties are making a fortune, why give it up? It's a shame that it's all about the money anymore.