Why Did Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Get the Only ‘Friends’ Spinoff?
It’s been over twenty years since Matt LeBlanc starred in Joey, the (so far) only Friends spinoff, which premiered on September 9, 2004. It’s a little surprising that Friends, one of the most popular TV shows of the ’90s, only got one spinoff (for comparison, The Big Bang Theory has three), but there are a couple of major reasons that most of the Central Perk gang never showed up on TV again after the series finale on May 6, 2004 — though the biggest was that the cast was simply over it.
No one else wanted a spinoff
Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Entertainment at the time, said that LeBlanc’s Joey was the natural pick for a spin-off (“Joey has emerged as the character America roots for and loves,” he said). However, Friends executive producer Kevin Bright later stated that LeBlanc wasn’t even their first choice.
“At first it was the obvious choices of who they wanted to do a series with and Jennifer[Aniston] was up there first,” said Bright, per Collider, “but she wanted to do movies, and she wasn’t interested in television.”
There was interest in continuing the Monica and Chandler storyline, but Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry weren’t interested, either. “Everyone at the end, strangely enough, while they were grateful for doing the show, they didn’t want to play those parts anymore,” said Bright, indicating that David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow were also ready to move on.
But LeBlanc was game. “Matt loved Joey, and he didn’t mind playing Joey,” said Bright. And so, Joey hit TV screens.
The series saw LeBlanc’s character leave New York City for Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. He lives with his nephew (Paulo Costanzo) and clashes with his older sister (Drea de Matteo). The series also features Jennifer Coolidge, post-American Pie and pre-White Lotus, as Joey’s agent. Collider notes this part was “something of a consolation prize” after NBC axed a sitcom based on her experiences as an actress and cocktail waitress.
Viewers done with Friends
But it wasn’t just the actors who were exhausted with their characters. While NBC hoped for Joey to be a success like Frasier (a Cheers spin-off), it was more like Joanie Loves Chachi. The first episode pulled in 18.6 million viewers, per Variety, but failed to maintain its momentum. NBC pulled it from its Thursday lineup for the second season, before outright canceling it in 2006.
“On Friends, Joey was a womanizer, but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on,” Bright told The Age in 2006. “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.”
Joey seemed destined for the memory bin and the “Worst Spin-Offs of all Time” lists. But in March 2025, two episodes of the show were uploaded to the official Friends YouTube channel, marking the first time Joey had been available to stream since its debut.