'Friends' Might Not Be Leaving Netflix After All, So Could I BE Any More Relieved?!

Sadly, it looks like you are going to have to say goodbye to your friends very soon. A new expiration date on the beloved sitcom's details page on Netflix has fans wondering, is Friends leaving Netflix? Although we all got to binge any classic episode of Friends that we wanted on Netflix for a few years now, it looks like the show will be off the streaming site in less than a month. So it is time for one last major Friends binge while there is still time, folks!

UPDATE: Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos reportedly told The Hollywood Reporter that 'Friends' is not leaving the streaming service. Elite Daily reached out to Netflix for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.

EARLIER: Currently, the "Details" page on Netflix's Friends page states that the iconic sitcom will only be available until Jan. 1, 2019. It is unclear exactly when Netflix updated the page to include this fast-approaching expiration date, but judging from all the upset fan responses on Twitter in the past couple of days, it appears Netflix silently announced the show's departure over this past weekend. This means that Friends fans only have a little under one month to rewatch all their favorite episodes, because Friends will be gone from Netflix forever right when 2018 comes to an end. I guess that at least could give you a good New Year's Eve party idea: one last Friends binge before the clock strikes midnight.

Although Friends may be departing from Netflix, that does not mean you will not be able to stream the series ever again. The likely reason for this sudden expiration is that WarnerMedia, which owns the rights to Friends, is planning on launching its own streaming service in 2019. In fact, after WarnerMedia announced its intention to make a streaming platform of its own, media analysts were predicting that Friends would leave Netflix in 2019 several months ago. So, fans will still be able to stream Friends once WarnerMedia releases its streaming service sometime next year.

But this will still come as very upsetting news to all the Friends fans who are subscribed to Netflix. The beloved NBC sitcom first became available on Netflix on Jan. 1, 2015, and a resurgence of Friends love among fans on social media became immediately apparent afterwards. Now, exactly four years after the show made its Netflix debut, Friends is set to leave the platform at the very beginning of 2019.

Friends aired for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC, during which time it became one of the most popular shows of the era and launched the careers of its six star actors. Because of its immense popularity and the current reboot craze in television, Friends has been at the center of reboot questions for years now, but nothing has ever cemented. Although some of the cast members have teased ideas or wishes for a Friends reboot, others have opened up about how much they do not want to revisit the sitcom that made them famous. And earlier this year, Friends co-creator David Crane explicitly shut down any hopes for a reboot, saying it will never happen.

Well then, I guess we all better get to bingeing if we are planning on one last Friends watch-through before 2019.