Friends


Friends cast reunites for HBO Max launch

The cast of Friends is to reunite for a one-off unscripted special that will air on the HBO Max streaming service, launching in May. HBO Max said Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer will return to the comedy’s original soundstage, Stage 24, on the Warner Bros. Studio lot […]

HBO Max in talks for potential reunion of ‘Friends’ cast

WarnerMedia’s forthcoming streamer HBO Max is in talks for an unscripted reunion of the Friends cast. Details of the show remain scant but the special would likely see the sitcom’s cast appearing together, something alluded to by former cast member Jennifer Aniston last month. The programme would form part of HBO Max’s launch plans for […]

‘Friends’ co-creators Marta Kauffman, David Crane rule out show’s return

The creative team behind hit sitcom Friends have ruled out rebooting the show or bringing together its cast for another outing, despite its ongoing popularity. Friends‘ final episode aired in 2004 but the show has enjoyed sustained popularity over recent years, boosted by its availability on Netflix, where it has secured a new generation of […]

WarnerMedia unveils streamer HBO Max’s content plans

WarnerMedia has named its soon-to-launch streaming service HBO Max and unveiled its programming slate, which will include 10,000 hours of content ranging from classic comedy Friends to new original shows. The streamer will house series including Batwoman (pictured) and Katy Keene from Warner Bros TV, which will debut on The CW and then be added […]

AT&T boss: WarnerMedia will take back ‘Friends’ for its SVOD

AT&T boss Randall Stephenson has said that the business will pull back titles such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory for its own platforms in the near future.  Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference in Boston on Tuesday (14 May), the exec highlighted that WarnerMedia’s “key video product” will be integral in driving revenue […]

What Friends tells us about rights ownership in 2019

Media giants building SVODs to rival Netflix are talking the talk, but who will walk the walk? Manori Ravindran investigates the knock-on effects of consolidation and the bigger picture around windowing and rights ownership. If 2018’s media disruption taught us anything, it was to expect the unexpected in the laser-focused drive for scale. As potential […]

Netflix & WarnerMedia strike $100m deal for Friends

Netflix is due to pay WarnerMedia $100m to place Warner Bros. hit Friends on its platform throughout 2019, according to The New York Times. Earlier this week, it was revealed that the streamer’s license for the New York-based sitcom was due to end in January 2019, sending an uproar among its fanbase. Netflix was quick to […]

Jennifer Aniston & Reese Witherspoon partner for new show

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon have partnered up to star in a new drama series about American morning TV shows. The series is said to be written by House of Cards’ Jay Carson and hails from former HBO drama head Michael Ellenberg, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Ellenberg will executive produce the unnamed […]

Kauffman sets dramas with HBO, Amazon

Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman has sold miniseries dramas to premium US outlets HBO and Amazon Prime Video. The HBO project is based on Karen Joy Fowler’s novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and counts Homeland creator Gideon Raff as an executive producer, while Amazon’s Emmis is based on Israeli drama Shtisel. We Are All […]

Viacom rejigs Comedy Central, MTV management

Viacom has implemented a new management structure at Comedy Central and MTV in the UK, giving Louise Holmes (above) a new programming role across both channels. Holmes has been running programming at Comedy Central, but will take on the newly-created role of vice president, linear and multiplatform programming, which covers the comedy channel as well […]