The most popular show in the world just became way more annoying to watch, and there’s no amount of holiday armadillo summoning we can do to stop it. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, all ten seasons (or 236 episodes) of Friends will be leaving Netflix at the beginning of 2020 and heading to another streaming home: HBO Max, the brand-new “direct-to-consumer experience” from WarnerMedia. Friends had been a Netflix staple for many years, with the service reportedly spending a cool $80 million to keep it on its slate for 2019 alone. Specifically, this new contract with HBO Max — valued at a whopping $425 million — will put Friends on the service for five years.
HBO Max will launch in the spring of 2020, with the price-per-month cost yet to be determined. In addition to Friends, the service also bought the streaming rights for the highly popular shows Pretty Little Liars and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which will leave Netflix as part of the deal. Between this and the demise of The Office for NBCUniversal’s new platform, someone check on the morale over at Netflix HQ. Protect Parks & Rec at all costs!
