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The-Office-Leaving-Netflix Photo credit: NBC
Allison Bowsher - Jun 26

‘The Office’ is leaving Netflix and people are freaking out

‘Oh God, my mind is going a mile an hour.’
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Everyone’s favourite workplace sitcom, The Office has been off the air for six years, but thanks to reruns and streaming giant Netflix, the workplace comedy continues to find a new audience. And now that audience is really, really mad. Just announced on Tuesday, NBCUniversal, the station that owns The Office, is taking it back from Netflix. This is like when Holly told Michael she wanted to make long distance work and then took it back, but worse, because we know Holly and Michael eventually got together.

NBCUniversal is set to launch their own streaming service in 2021 and understandably want to feature one of their biggest shows on the platform. In an announcement made on Tuesday, NBCUniversal’s Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises Bonnie Hammer said, “The Office has become a staple of pop culture and is a rare gem whose relevance continues to grow at a time when fans have more entertainment choices than ever before. We can’t wait to welcome the gang from Dunder Mifflin to NBCUniversal’s new streaming service.” But you know who can wait? Everyone with a Netflix account.

NBC has reportedly secured “exclusive domestic streaming rights” for all nine seasons of the American spinoff of Ricky Gervais’ British comedy. According to data released by Nielsen, The Office was streamed for 52 million minutes in 2018, almost twice as much as the next top-rated streaming show under the NBC umbrella. So yeah, NBC is going to want The Office to come home. But the move back to the peacock isn’t free, with NBC paying a whopping $500 million to outbid Netflix.

Although the series won’t leave the streaming service until the end of 2020, fans, including Netflix, are already mourning the loss. With The Office as the most-watched show on Netflix, the streaming service is understandably upset about the move. The only thing that could make this day better is ice cream.


Of course, the people at Netflix weren’t the only ones upset that they will soon be unable to watch “Business School,” “Dinner Party,” “Casual Friday” and “Classy Christmas” simply by logging on to their Netflix account.

The Office is likely the first of many big-name series that will be leaving the streaming service in the coming years. In addition to NBC, other parent companies are planning on launching their own streaming services, which means Warner Media will likely take back Friends, Disney will remove Grey’s Anatomy from Netflix and put on its own site, and more. In conclusion, binge while you can.

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The silver lining in this move is that with fewer shows from other production companies, Netflix will continue to focus on their own original series and possibly add more, with the streaming service cleaning up at award shows thanks to their homegrown titles, including House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black, and Queer Eye. Also, this new show.