Matt Le Blanc as Joey Tribbiani, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green and Courteney Cox as Monica Geller on NBC’s “Friends.”
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The long-awaited “Friends” reunion special will arrive on HBO Max on May 27, exactly one year after it was originally expected to debut on the streaming service.
The reunion was delayed multiple times due to production shutdowns during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It had been slated to be filmed in early 2020, but was only able to begin filming this April.
The program will feature all six “Friends” stars — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer. It’s estimated that each actor was paid $2.5 million for participating in the special.
“Friends” aired its final episode in 2004, but has had a major resurgence in pop culture because of streaming. Younger generations, who missed out on the sitcom in the late ’90s, have gravitated toward it in recent years. Its popularity resulted in a bidding war from platforms that wished to own the content.
In 2020, all 10 seasons of the show left Netflix and went to HBO Max in a deal that is rumored to have cost WarnerMedia around $400 million. The show originally aired on NBC.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
