Friends fans are finally able to watch the eight final episodes of the spinoff show Joey 20 years after the failed sitcom was cancelled.
For the first time in the United States, all episodes of Matt LeBlanc’s Joey are now available to stream on the official Friends YouTube channel after NBC started releasing the series earlier this year.
The infamously unsuccessful show first premiered on NBC four months after Friends ended its iconic 10-season run. The series followed LeBlanc’s titular character Joey Tribbiani as he moves to Los Angeles, where, ironically, his new sitcom is canceled and he is forced to reunite with his sister, played by Drea de Matteo, and nephew, Paulo Costanzo. The show also starred Jennifer Coolidge, Andrea Anders, Ben Falcone, and Miguel A. Núñez Jr.
Joey aired from 2004 to 2006 and was cut short in the U.S. due to low ratings. The show was pulled in the middle of its second season, with eight episodes left unaired by NBC, even though they were broadcast internationally through other networks.
The spinoff started with a strong viewership of 18.6 million Americans watching the pilot episode. It also won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy, and LeBlanc won Favorite Male TV Star in 2005.
However, excitement started dwindling as the episodes went on. Season one averaged 10.2 million viewers, and an even lower 7.1 million for its second. Its last broadcast episode drew in just 4 million viewers.
After Joey ended, executive producer Kevin Bright blamed NBC for the show’s inability to find its footing.
“On Friends Joey was a womanizer but we enjoyed his exploits,” he explained to The Age in 2006. “He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn’t get a job, couldn’t ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard.”
Despite the ill-fated show’s flaws, nostalgic fans of the hit original series are celebrating the release of the lost episodes on YouTube.
“To the person that runs the Friends youtube channel, Thank you. I never got a chance to watch this series and the fact that you kept with it is amazing,” one person celebrated in the comments of an episode.
Another wrote, “This was a gem of a show. Wished I could have seen it back then when it was airing. But still glad I was able to see this and enjoy it with everywhere on YouTube. Thanks Joey and everyone. Thanks Matt and the crew.”
