The F.R.I.E.N.D.S vs Seinfeld debate got reignited by Jerry Seinfeld when he performed in 2026 at the Netflix Is a Joke Festival at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. He jokingly said that maybe NBC created F.R.I.E.N.D.S to compete with Seinfeld. This statement was said by the comedian when he asked the crowd in jest about their favourite TV show to initiate an exchange of thoughts on both of these shows that shaped television in the 1990s.
In the show performed at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, Seinfeld invited the people to name his favourite TV show. When one of the audience members named ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ as his favourite show, he came up with a hypothesis regarding the comparison between F.R.I.E.N.D.S vs Seinfeld. He said, “My show came on ’89, ’90. F.R.I.E.N.D.S came on a few years later.”
He continued saying, “I think NBC was watching my show and went, ‘Hey, this is working pretty well. Why don’t we try the same thing with good-looking people?’ And that was a pretty good idea. I think that kind of worked.”
However, the comedian made clear references to the time frame that existed between the two shows, as Seinfeld had its premiere on NBC in 1989, while Friends was aired five years later. Additionally, he highlighted the popularity of both shows as rating giants in the network, despite their different story lines. Comparisons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S vs Seinfeld have been popular since the beginning, especially because of their similarities.
The F.R.I.E.N.D.S vs Seinfeld debate reappeared yet again in the form of statements made by Lisa Kudrow in an interview in 2022. In the interview, she revealed how Seinfeld had told her in a party in the 1990s, ‘you are welcome’ regarding the success of scheduling F.R.I.E.N.D.S. The atmosphere of working on the set had been tough too.
Lisa Kudrow commented on this saying, “Don’t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers’ lines or it didn’t get the perfect response, they could be like, ‘Can’t the bitch f–king read? She’s not even trying. She f–ed up my line.”
The series Seinfeld starred Jerry Seinfeld and featured Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, and Jason Alexander and spanned nine seasons. The show F.R.I.E.N.D.S starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry for ten seasons. According to audience, it was more emotionally-driven than Seinfeld.
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