The first episode of the show Friends premiered on September 22, 1994, and was seen by nearly 22 million people. The initial seven-page pitch for the show, which was created less than a year earlier, named the series “Insomnia Cafe.” The title evolved to “Six of One,” then “Friends Like Us,” and eventually to the name we all know and love today: “Friends.”
Each cast member was paid 22,500 dollars per episode in the first season. However, those numbers would grow significantly as the show went on. Friends was a hit from the start, but it gained popularity over the years - with the exception of slight slump in the ratings around seasons five to seven.
From the first season to the last, the show and its cast and crew were nominated and won several awards, including 62 Primetime Emmy nominations with 6 wins and 10 Golden Globe Award nominations with one win.
The Friends finale, which aired May 6, 2004, had 52.46 million viewers, making it one of the most watched final episodes of a TV series in history. However, that actually isn’t the most watched Friends episode of of all time. The episode after the 1996 Super Bowl garnered 52.9 million viewers.
Today, all 6 of them still receive 2% of syndication income, or 20 million dollars each per year, since the show still brings in 1 billion dollars annually for Warner Brothers. Plus, now that the Netflix deal is going through, Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc, Perry and Schwimmer can expect to see even more on their checks from Warner.
1 comment:
The show left a major impact on popular culture. Recently Netflix paid millions of dollars in order to keep Friends available for streaming. Honestly, despite many tries I've never been able to find the show humorous, but after learning about the impact the show had through the documentary I've come to respect it.
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