HBO Max’s eagerly anticipated Friends reunion special is being delayed.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that the unscripted special was set to be filmed next Monday and Tuesday on the show’s iconic and former home at Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank. Given the current state of the global coronavirus pandemic, production has been delayed until at least May. A formal filming date has not been determined as it’s unclear when any programming will be able to resume production.
Most, if not all, current productions — scripted, late-night, daytime and syndicated, among others — have been shut down as the world begins to self-quarantine and employ social distancing. The CDC’s current recommendation is to avoid groups larger than 50. Most productions — even something like the unscripted Friends reunion — have hundreds of people on set at any given moment.
Representatives for HBO Max and producers Warner Bros. TV declined comment.
The Friends reunion special was poised to be the kind of must-see TV that an upstart streaming service like HBO Max would want. Disney, for example, launched its streaming service late last year with its highly anticipated Star Wars drama The Mandalorian. That series immediately broke through the clutter and helped create an urgency to subscribe to the service. It’s unclear if the Friends reunion will now be available when HBO Max launches.
Officially given a formal green light a month ago, the six core stars and the creators of the NBC comedy from Warner Bros. TV closed deals to reunite for the one-off HBO Max special. The show, along with the entire library of Friends, will be available in May when the streamer officially bows. Sources say HBO Max’s launch remains on track for its date to be determined in May.
The unscripted reunion special will feature stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, as well as series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman. Sources tell THR that the cast, who all negotiated together, will earn more than double their former per-episode fee for the reunion and be paid between $2.5 million and $3 million for the special. The cast famously renegotiated their salaries together during the show’s original run to earn a then-historic $1 million per episode of the comedy.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter