The rumors are sadly true; the American comedy TV series, The Office, is officially leaving Netflix, and soon. The beloved show will depart from Netflix on January 1, moving exclusively to NBC’s new streaming service, Peacock. There has been talk of The Office leaving Netflix for quite a while; however, fans never believed the dreaded day would actually come. Unfortunately, their optimism was in vain, and the end of the comedy’s time on Netflix is quickly approaching. 

  For those who do not know, The Office is an American sitcom, featuring nine seasons and a total of 201 episodes. The show takes place at a fictional paper supply company, called Dunder-Mifflin, at its Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch. The comedy follows the everyday lives of the branch’s office employees in the form of a mockumentary; meaning that it is modeled as a documentary on fictional events and people in order to mock its subject matter. The Office is multi-award-winning and stars numerous popular actors such as Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, and more. In addition to the show being extremely hilarious, it also satirizes serious issues occurring in the American workplace that often go unnoticed. These problems include sexism, racism, disregarded mental and physical health, ageism, and homophobia. The show’s humor, cast, and plot are highly entertaining and touch on real-life issues, making it easy for fans to feel heartbroken seeing it leave Netflix. Office fanatics at Millbrook are just as upset. Junior Nina Wilson expressed her devastation, saying that “The Office is [her] comfort show and it getting taken off Netflix is the saddest thing that will happen to [her].”

  Although The Office is departing from Netflix, it is not going too far. At the beginning of the new year, viewers can watch The Office solely on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s new streaming service that was released in April of 2020. Peacock is only available in the United States and currently has about 22 million subscribers. Watchers can view the first two seasons of The Office on Peacock for free, but after that, they will have to pay anywhere from $4.99 to $9.99 per month for a subscription to the network. Even though The Office will not be completely unavailable to the public, many people are upset, questioning the show’s move. Netflix is a much more accessible and popular streaming service as it has over 195 million subscribers spanning 190 different countries. While viewers could subscribe to Peacock, it completely defeats the purpose of having a streaming service such as Netflix, a platform that is supposed to provide subscribers with the most sought-after shows and movies in one place. Additionally, the deal does not make sense to fans as The Office is Netflix’s second-highest watched show, accounting for a total of 45.8 billion minutes watched in 2019 alone. Therefore, this is a major loss for both Netflix and supporters of The Office.

  The Office is one of the most humorous and popular shows in current television. The news of the show leaving Netflix is extremely tragic, to say the least. It will make the show less accessible to its fans and could possibly put a major damper on Netflix’s subscription levels. With that being said, it is time to say goodbye to The Office in the best way possible: binging as much of it as you can until it is sadly too late. Good luck!