Is Friends Still the Most Popular Show on TV? It is, of course, slightly strange that a 20-year-old sitcom still retains such a magnetic appeal; for example, Warner Bros. also produced ER, which ran for 15 seasons, but there’s no opportunity, nor likely much demand, to have your photo taken on that show’s authentic gurney, let alone get engaged on it. Yet Friends’ popularity seems to be on the rise. Between its various syndicated airings, the show still draws a weekly audience of 16 million in the U.S., a big enough viewership to make it a viable hit on current network TV (and that’s not even including streaming). In the U.K., ratings for Friends repeats are growing, up more than 10 percent in 2015 from the previous year. And as of January 1, 2015, the entire run of Friends — all 236 episodes, or 88 hours’ worth — has become available on Netflix; the company paid an undisclosed sum for the rights to stream it. (The best industry guess put the price at roughly $118 million.) Netflix, notoriously, doesn’t release information about how many people are watching its shows, but the sitcom appears to be winning a whole new audience. “The social chatter was huge,” says Erin Dwyer, a Netflix spokesperson. “And we’ve been talking to a lot of teen-oriented outlets, like Seventeen and Teen.com, and what we’ve been interested to learn is that they get just as much buzz and clicks for Friends as they do for something like Pretty Little Liars, which is on the air right now.”
This is still (and will probably always be) my go-to hangover/bedridden with sickness show. It just makes me so happy.
I love this show so much. Back when I lived in Brazil, they'd air two episodes a day right after school. I always looked forward to that hour of entertainment. I should rewatch this once summer break comes around.
I saw all 6. I convinced myself I should just buy Joey and Chandler. But then I realized once I bought those, I would need them all. So I wisely bought none of them. Yet.
I always enjoyed but never really loved the show until I watched it on Netflix recently. I get it now. It seems a bit... cashed in, maybe even lazy the last few seasons, but it still makes me laugh and before you know it, an entire day has passed where all you've done is watched Friends. One of my favorite scenes is the Holiday Armadillo. The costume, Ross's movements, the dialogue... so great. Even later on when Joey somehow gets dumber, Phoebe gets... stranger, Ross gets whinier... it just works. For ten fucking seasons it works.
Haha, that's season three episode two, maybe my favorite episode. But four has "The One With the Embryos" which is also in play for my favorite episode.
One of my favorite shows of all time. A show that I quote daily...that even watching old episodes, I know almost all the lines. Chandler is probably one of my favorite TV characters of all time. Top 10 Favorite Episodes: TOW Ross Got High TOW Joey's Porsche TOW Where Everybody Finds Out TOW The Embryo's TOW Unagi TOW The Proposal Part 2 TOW the Ball TOW With the Ring TO After Vegas TOW They All Turn 30
Love this show, can put it on and it still makes me laugh, regardless of how many times I've seen every episode
I used to haaate Ross but now he's one of my favorite characters (even though I can clearly see his flaws), oops.