A ‘Friends’ reunion won’t take place until a studio audience can be present for its taping.
Fans were thrilled when they heard the cast of the hit US show – which includes Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer – would be reuniting for a TV special and now WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer chairman, Bob Greenblatt, has revealed it won’t go ahead unless they can have a "big, raucous live audience" experiencing the show live.
Bob shared: "At first we thought, shows will be delayed for a month or two at the most, and now it seems like it’s going to be far longer than that. We’re holding out for being able to get this special done hopefully by the end of the summer, if the stars align and hopefully we can get back into production. We do think there’s a value to having a big, raucous live audience to experience these six great friends coming back together and we didn’t want to just suddenly do it on a web call with, you know, six squares and people shooting from their kitchens and bedroom."
And whilst the special was meant to be launched with the arrival of HBO Max, Bob still feels it will be just as well taken when it does get released – hopefully in the fall.
Bob added to Variety: "But at the moment, we’re trying to look to the future and get this thing done in a more conventional way, and I think it’s worth waiting for. We would have loved to have had it on [HBO Max on] day one, but at the same time, if we can get it launched in the fall, I think it’ll be something that we can have the audience really looking forward to as well."
Friends reunion won’t happen without studio audience
