Friends Not Just on a Break
December 19, 2024 
2 Comments
After 30 years of being a TVNZ 2 staple, the broadcaster finally has retired cultural phenomenon Friends to its streaming service TVNZ+.
The last broadcast was on December 13, when TVNZ 2 closed the perpetual loop of re-runs with episode six of season eight (the show ran for 11 seasons).
But if you thought it was just “on a break”, to quote one of its funniest, most iconic lines, TVNZ has other ideas for its 5.30 weekday slot.
“The Hundred with Andy Lee will air over the holiday period and then taking over the slot from January 6th will be Seinfeld,” a spokeswoman says.
“Friends remains available on TVNZ+ for fans.”
The move isn’t surprising given Friends must rival The Simpsons as the most-repeated series on NZ broadcast TV.
The difference is The Simpsons is still in production but in this market, after extensive runs on TVNZ 2, TV3, Duke and Sky 5, it’s exclusive to Disney+.
Friends now can be streamed here on not just TVNZ+ but also Sky’s Max and Netflix.
When Max launched here, I asked Warner Bros. Discovery if the availability of key WB shows like Friends and The Big Bang Theory would continue on TVNZ, which historically has been the free-to-air home of its sitcoms and dramas.
“WBD has a broad content offering, and a range of partnerships in the New Zealand market,” a spokeswoman said.
“We pursue a diversified distribution strategy for our content, to maximise the content’s value and to best meet customer preferences.
“While the Max content library will have huge depth, we will not move all WBD content exclusively onto Max.”
And here I was thinking TV2 would just repeat it in perpetuity! Wouldn’t surprise if it returns at some point though. Interesting choice going for Seinfeld at 5:30 – hasn’t been replayed on FTA here in eons but is easily available on Netflix etc. One of my favourites but not sure it has the generational crossover that Friends does. A question, too, if you know – any word on how TV2 will cover the absence of Shortland Street from two nights a week next year? Will they pull primetime programming forward those nights (which I assume will be Thu/Fri) or … The Big Bang Theory or something? — Clint.
Yes, Clint, I would have thought Seinfeld, like Friends, would have hit saturation point some time ago. But it has been years since it had a FTA run and never at 5.30. So there may still be some yada-yada-yada left in it for TVNZ 2’s 18-49 demo. Another show from that era, Frasier, also has held up well 30 years on, having re-run frequently on Prime/Sky Open, Duke and Comedy Central and spawned a popular reboot on TVNZ+. I don’t know TVNZ 2’s scheduling strategy for Shortland Street but I’d expect it to air three consecutive nights a week, presumably Monday-Wednesday since these are higher-rating nights than Thursday or Friday. The TV Guide recently ran an interesting article on the soap’s future, revealing the new episodic structure: the show will be broken up into “mini-seasons” — each week’s block of storylines will be largely self-contained, “so you’ll feel like you’ve had a complete chunk of Shortland Street,” head writer Jess Joy Wood says. “There will be a beginning, a middle and an end, while you still have these overarching, longer-form character narratives.” This strategy also will allow new viewers to “jump in” anytime and should lessen the risk of audience erosion with less-compelling plots.