20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Friends

9. Friends Wasn€™'t An Instant Hit

Friends Cast
NBC

The first episode aired in the U.S. on September 22, 1994. Sandwiched between the popular Mad About You and ratings juggernaut Seinfeld, Friends pulled in 22 million viewers and was the fifteenth-most-watched TV show that week, but its long-term future remained in jeopardy. Viewing figures for the following episodes dipped as the showrunners struggled to establish the show'€™s identity and develop each character, and by the end of first season the show was a moderate - if unspectacular €“- success.

Fortunately, the following summer saw theme song I'€™ll Be There For You explode onto the charts, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. for eight weeks and bringing a host of new fans to the show to send rerun figures through the roof. The Rembrandts' song kick-started a global phenomenon that would dominate the TV landscape for almost a decade.

Contributor
Contributor

I watch movies and I watch sport. I also watch movies about sport, and if there were a sport about movies I'd watch that too. The internet was the closest thing I could find.