The Office is Still the Most-Watched Show on Netflix, But it Could All be Coming to an End Soon

The Office may have gone off the air in 2013, but it remains one of the funniest and most-liked (and watched) TV shows today. From syndicated episodes on certain cable channels to the comedy show available on-demand on streaming services, viewers just can’t get enough of Michael Scott and his band of misfits at Dunder Mifflin. Just how much The Office is beloved might surprise you, though, because Netflix users are still making it the most-watched show on the streaming platform.

That’s according to the latest Nielsen report, via The Wall Street Journal, which says that The Office is being streamed more than any other show on the platform — although, as a caveat, the data was pulled from streaming numbers in 2018. Still, considering a show that hasn’t had a new episode in six years is still that revered is both interesting and a bit surprising, but it appears that Netflix users have a thing for vintage TV shows, because the entire top-10 list are of the older variety.

Here’s a look at the data from the Nielson report:

1. The Office
2. Friends
3. Grey’s Anatomy
4. NCIS
5. Criminal Minds
6. (tied) Orange is the New Black
7. (tied) Shameless
8. Supernatural
9. Parks and Recreation
10. Ozark

Although, on the surface, the information might not seem problematic, the fact that only two of the 10 most-watched TV shows on Netflix are original productions, Orange is the New Black and Ozark, has to cause some concern to the streaming mogul. The Nielson report also showed that non-original shows made up 72 percent of the total number of minutes people spent watching Netflix, as of October 2018. That has to be at the forefront of the next batch of original content coming from Netflix.

Statement from a Netflix spokesperson:

“Looking at overall watch time skews towards titles with many seasons. Most Netflix originals have three or fewer seasons at most. It’s why we focus on the individual shows or films members watch, as opposed to how much time they spend on one series versus another. And if you look at most watched titles, Netflix originals accounted for 10 out of 10 in the last quarter, or 21 out of the top 25.”

While The Office is currently in the top spot of most-watched shows on Netflix in the Nielson report, it might not last much longer. That’s because, while every season of the show is currently available on Netflix, there’s internal discussion of removing the series, since NBCUniversal — which owns the rights to the show — is in the process of launching its own streaming service to rival Netflix and wants exclusive rights to the show, per The Wall Street Journal story.

As of now, Netflix hasn’t announced any potential end date for The Office to stop streaming on its platform, so users can still take in the hilarity of the show at their current pace — but that may be coming to an end soon.

This article was updated on April 25, 2019 with a statement from a Netflix spokesperson.