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Friends confirmed to leave Netflix on New Year’s Day

ByBryce Olin|
385848 27: Cast members of NBC's comedy series 'Friends.' Pictured (l to r): David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Cook, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay. Episode: 'The One Where They All Turn Thirthy.' (Photo by Warner Bros. Television)
385848 27: Cast members of NBC's comedy series 'Friends.' Pictured (l to r): David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Cook, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani and Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay. Episode: 'The One Where They All Turn Thirthy.' (Photo by Warner Bros. Television)

Friends is leaving Netflix on Wednesday, January 1, 2020, also known as New Year’s Day. Start your Friends marathon now!

If you want to watch Friends again before it leaves Netflix, you better start soon.

According to a report from What’s on Netflix, Friends is scheduled to leave Netflix US on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020, also known as New Year’s Day. The show will remain on Netflix in other countries where the show is available to stream.

If you live in the US, you have less than one month to watch one of the best comedies of all time before it leaves the streaming service.

Friends viewers will see the removal date in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen on the “Details” page on Netflix, according to the report.

This news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to fans. We learned Friends was leaving Netflix next year, and many when will remember when Friends almost left Netflix US last year. Fans noticed a similar warning that Friends was leaving Netflix in 2019. As it turned out, the show wasn’t actually leaving that day; it was the day the show’s rights expired on the streaming service.

Netflix, then, paid A LOT to keep the hit show for one more year, so fans have had basically a full year to bid farewell to the show they love to watch on the streaming service.

After Jan. 1, you won’t be able to stream the series anywhere for a few months. Friends is officially headed to HBO Max, which is the upcoming streaming service that includes most of the Warner Bros. TV content. Warner Bros. TV is the distributor of Friends. HBO Max is scheduled to launch in May 2020.

Obviously, it’s a bummer for many fans that Friends is, indeed, leaving Netflix in on the first of the year. This show is considered to be one of the biggest shows on the streaming service right now, along with The Office, which is also leaving Netflix and moving to NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, in the future.

It will be interesting to see if Netflix feels the loss of Friends in terms of the number of subscribers who cancel. There might be a few subscribers who cancel because the series is leaving the streaming service, but I don’t think that will be the case. There are so many other good shows on Netflix, and the streaming network is also cranking out great content.

There’s always a chance Netflix could come to terms with the distributor and keep the show for a few months until HBO Max launches next spring, but I highly doubt that will happen. This removal has been in the works for a while, and it seems like Netflix is prepared for the show to leave.

We’ll be sure to remind you about the show leaving Netflix at the beginning of next year. I have a feeling more than a few people will be marathoning or binge-watching this show on New Year’s Eve!

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