Friends Ended 20 Years Ago Today & I Am Not Okay

Summary The Friends series finale, "The Last One," aired 20 years ago on May 6, 2004.

Friends had a monumental impact, with its series finale watched by over 50 million people, solidifying its place in TV history.

Nostalgia for Friends remains strong, and the show has shaped pop culture and impacted multiple generations.

The calendar isn't lying: it really has been 20 years since Friends ended. Debuting in 1994, Friends owned the TV landscape for a decade on NBC, before coming to an end with "The Last One - Parts One & Two" on May 6, 2004. Few TV shows before or since have enjoyed the sheer cultural dominance that the sitcom did, which also meant its ending was one of the most pressured in TV history.

How could the show possibly wrap things up? How would Friends end Ross and Rachel's relationship? What would happen to Chandler and Monica? What about Phoebe and Joey? It's a little strange to think, in an era after the likes of Lost and Game of Thrones' finales suffered such backlash, that the level of expectation for Friends ending after 10 seasons was so mammoth, but that speaks to the juggernaut it was. Thankfully, Rachel got off the plane, Friends stuck the landing, and it remains a pop-cultural touchstone for multiple generations, although that also means dealing with the fact that, well, it has been 20 years since it ended.

Related The 20 Best Episodes Of Friends Ever The show spoils for choice, but from "The One Where Everybody Finds Out" to "The Last One: Part Two," these Friends episodes are the best of all time.

How Friends' Series Finale Was Received

The End Of Friends Was A Massive TV Event

Friends' ending was, unsurprisingly, a huge hit. The hype leading up to the episodes had been remarkable, with a major advertising push from NBC. The finale was watched by thousands of people together at a New York event; the cost of commercials during the finale reached $2 million for just 30 seconds of airtime [via NBC News]. This wasn't just a normal ending, it was the Super Bowl of sitcoms.

Related All 10 Seasons Of Friends, Ranked Which season of Friends is the best has been debated since the show finished in 2004, but it's undeniable some Friends seasons are better than others.

In terms of ratings, it was extremely popular. Friends' finale pulled in 52.5 million viewers, making it the fifth most-watched TV series finale of all time, behind only M*A*S*H, Cheers, The Fugitive, and Seinfeld (all of which existed in different eras of TV with much less competition), and the most watched TV episode of the 2000s.

Most-Watched American TV Series Finales Rank Show Viewership (millions) 1 M*A*S*H 105 2 Cheers 80.4 3 The Fugitive 78 4 Seinfeld 76.3 5 Friends 52.5

Reception to the finale was, for the most part, positive, especially from audiences. On IMDb, "The Last One" has a rating of 9.6/10 from users, making it the second highest-rated episode on the website, behind only season 5, episode 14, "The One Where Everybody Finds Out" with 9.7. Critical appraisal was a little more mixed - Salon called it "predictable" and "interminable," while Newsday [via BBC] said it was "sweet and dumb and satisfying," and most reactions fell within that range.

Why Friends' Ending Turning 20 Hits So Hard

The Classic Sitcom's Milestone Comes With A Major Realization

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In a sense, it shouldn't be surprising that the Friends series finale is 20-years-old. The show is very much a product of the 1990s (in ways both good and bad), and yet learning that the finale is now just one year away from being able to legally drink alcohol in the United States is still pretty startling. That's in part because Friends has never truly gone away, having always endured in popularity via network reruns and then streaming, so the passage of time is warped. It's especially hard to believe the show has now been off the air twice as long as it was on it.

Nostalgia is a powerful weapon, and a big part of why Friends remains so popular to this day; it's comfort blanket TV, a reminder of a simpler time that never truly existed.

It's even more shocking, though, when you grew up watching Friends. When their lives seemed not only aspirational, but you foolishly thought they were attainable. That, eventually, there'd be a period when all you did was hang out with your friends rather than, y'know, be at work. When how Monica and Rachel could afford the New York apartment wasn't even a question you asked. Then all of a sudden you blink, it's 20 years later, and apparently you're around the same age - maybe even older - than the characters were in the finale? No one told you life was gonna be this way.

Joey was the only Friends character to receive a spinoff show, which was canceled after two seasons. Other cast members did not appear.

Nostalgia is a powerful weapon, and a big part of why Friends remains so popular to this day; it's comfort blanket TV, a reminder of a simpler time that never truly existed. But, if nostalgia is a weapon, then it's a double-edged sword. That same feeling that can make you yearn for the past and the thing you used to love is also a stark reminder of your own mortality and that life does not play out in real life like it does on TV. Reality is messier, more complicated, and people don't always get off the plane.

The 20th anniversary of Friends' ending hits particularly hard after Matthew Perry's death in 2023. Perry was and forever will be an indelible part of the show's legacy, a huge reason for its success, and truly made viewers feel like they were as much pals with Chandler as Joey was.

He was, of course, incredibly funny, but also brought a real sense of emotion to the show, especially in later seasons with his relationship with Monica and their struggles and, in the finale, joy. It's fitting that Chandler has the last line of the entire show; while Perry's death genuinely felt like losing a friend, the show allows him to always be there in some way.

Related Friends: Chandler’s 20 Most Memorable Quotes There is arguably nobody in Friends who has as many memorable quotes as Chandler Bing, whose one-liners are iconic.

How Friends' Ending Holds Up 20 Years Later

"The Last One" Remains A (Mostly) Fitting Finale

Rewatching Friends season 10's "The Last One" is a very different experience in 2024 than it was in 2004, because it is so far removed from the weight of expectation upon it, and instead falls in line with the more comforting experience of the rest of the show. That's true about both its qualities and flaws.

Part of Friends' lasting appeal is that it is sweet and sentimental, and that the characters end up exactly where most people wanted them to.

It certainly isn't a perfect two-parter, and it does fall into predictability. But is that a bad thing? Part of Friends' lasting appeal is that it is sweet and sentimental, and that the characters end up exactly where most people wanted them to. It's an episode that stays true to the show and what most viewers desired. It's fan service, but it's also, after 10 years, incredibly well-earned. It's touching and funny.

Related The 15 Best Friends Characters, Ranked Friends has entertained fans for almost three decades by now thanks to the quirky set of characters. So who did Ranker fans vote to as the very best?

There are parts of Friends that haven't aged well, and there are strong arguments for why Ross and Rachel shouldn't have ended up together, but it hit all the right notes at the time and it's hard to view it any other way two decades removed. It's a conclusion where things are changing, but not too much. Where it's all going to be okay. Where, no matter what, they'll always be there for you.