Oh. My. God. Could we BE any more disappointed?
That’s how many fans have reacted to the news that the hugely popular sitcom Friends will be leaving Netflix in the UK at the end of the year.
The show, which has attracted a new generation of fans in the streaming era, will leave the platform on 30 December.
It has not yet been announced which streamer it will move to, but it comes as HBO Max, which carries the show in the US, prepares to launch in the UK.
One viewer said the news was “probably the worst thing that’s ever happened to me”, while another said she was “genuinely heartbroken”.
The show also currently airs on Comedy Central network and Channel 5 in the UK.
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer starred in 236 episodes across 10 seasons, starting in 1994.
The show, about a group of 20-something professionals in New York, is one of the most successful TV series of all time, and is still culturally influential more than two decades after it ended.
A huge number of guest stars appeared over the years, including George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams.
The cast reunited in 2021 for a one-off special hosted by James Corden, which saw the actors reminisce about their time on the show and revisit the original sets.
Two years later, Perry died in Los Angeles. A post-mortem found a high concentration of the drug ketamine in his blood and determined that the “acute effects” of the controlled substance had killed him.
Viewers shared their disappointment about the show’s departure from Netflix on social media, with one writing that she “might actually cry”.
“It’s the series I turn to when I’m happy, sad, stressed, or celebrating something,” posted one viewer on X.
“Watching Friends while eating my favourite dinner is one of my small joys in life.”
Friends is “the ONLY thing I go onto Netflix every day for”, agreed another fan. “I watch it non-stop back-to-back, my absolute comfort show.”
Another described the series as “my anti-depressant at night”, a sentiment echoed by a user who said: “This has been the show to get me to sleep since I was a baby.”
The Big Bang Theory, another hugely popular US comedy, will also leave Netflix at the end of the year.
One fan said they were the “two shows I watch repeatedly to fall asleep, to help me do jobs around the house – two big ‘strategies’ that help with my ADHD, literally use them daily, have done for years”.
BBC News has asked HBO Max if it plans to show Friends in the New Year.
