Fans are already petitioning NBC to leave The Office on Netflix, more than a year before the series is scheduled to leave the platform.
On Tuesday, news broke that all 10 season of The Office will be leaving Netflix in January of 2020. The beloved sitcom is one of Netflix’s most-watched shows, with binge-watchers and re-watchers playing the show over and over. After Netflix verified a report by The Wrap, fans began begging to keep the show where it is.
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A petition first started up late on Tuesday night, created by a Change.org member named Josh Fletcher. At the time of this writing, the petition is already over 9,400 signatures — nearly to its 10,000 signature goal in less than 24 hours.
“As of January 2021 NBC will not longer allow The Office to be streamed on Netflix but rather only on their own streaming platform!” Fletcher wrote. “Please sign and share this to let them know the fans don’t want that!”
As they signed, fans left comment agreeing with Fletcher and his reasoning for the petition. Many noted that, if NBC and the other networks pull all of their programming from Netflix for their own proprietary streaming services, it will effectively making streaming as disparate and expensive as cable, which no one wants.
“The Office is a cultural icon, a representative of our lives that carries with it unprecedented significance,” one person wrote. “It should and needs to be widely available. It belongs to us all.”
“I am signing because The Office is literally the show I use Netflix for 99 percent of the time,” added another. “What will I use to fill the void if it’s removed?”
“I’m signing because why would you not try to save The Office?” a third person added simply.
Whether these pleas will reach Netflix or make any difference is debatable at best. These days, Netflix gets social media outcry and online petitions for just about every decision it makes, but it rarely competes with the simple metrics the company uses internally to decide on renewals and cancellations.
Moreover, the decision does not boil down to one series. The Office, Friends, and probably other shows and movies will leave Netflix when their current licenses run out for the new streaming service from NBC’s parent company, WarnerMedia. The app is expected to go live some time next year.
These days, online petitions to entertainment companies are getting more and more backlash on social media. Many on Twitter argue that it is like screaming into the void, and is unlikely to make a difference in most cases. Many have also pointed out that shows like The Office are available to purchase individually on other mediums, such as DVD, so if fans really find it to be indispensable, they can purchase it elsewhere.
All 10 seasons of The Office are available to stream on Netflix until January of 2021.
