The Office Won't Reboot As NBC Secures Contracts For Season 9

After lengthy talks and negotiations, stars Ed Helms, John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer have agreed in principal to return for another series of NBC's "The Office". Talks had almost reached the 11th hour at NBC, which as recently as a few weeks ago left execs in a panic and even considering a reboot of the show with a brand new cast, but the trio are now "inches away from signing on the dotted line" for a return and work at Dunder Mifflin will continue as normal, according to Deadline. The hold-up in talks was over money and scheduling (is there ever anything else in dispute with these things?). Helms' film career has shot through the roof with "The Hangover" series' success and he is about to shoot the third movie in that saga this summer which is set to bag him $15 million (plus percentages of profits) alone and he no longer needed the show, whilst Krasinski is embarking on a directing career and Jenna Fischer was looking to move on to other things. However NBC pulled it through with the trio, likely offering more money and looser scheduling to accommodate their other ventures. NBC knew all along that they could not really afford to keep the show going as "The Office" without Helms, Krasinski and Fischer, especially now that they are the three main cast members with current top-billing star Rainn Wilson leaving mid-way through the next season for his own spin-off sitcom set around Schrute Farms. The show, despite steadily losing ratings since the departure of Steve Carell last season, is still the highest rated NBC comedy but the slippery ratings slope they have been falling down, which has only got worse since the introduction of Catherine Tate to the cast, really needs to be quelled. Meanwhile talks with actor B.J. Novak, who is also an executive producer and sometimes writer/director on the show (he wrote and helmed last night's season eight finale), have not yet begun but are expected to start soon. His love interest however, played by Mindy Kaling, will be leaving the show as Kaling has just got her pilot "It's Messy" picked up as a series at Fox. Renewal for an eighth season of The Office will happen immediately when that trio sign the dotted line. The next task for NBC is to find a replacement for Paul Liberstein, who is acting as show-runner on the Schrute Farms spin-off he co-created with Wilson, likely also meaning that his character Toby will also be written out of the show. You can find all our reviews of The Office Season 8 HERE.