A star of The Office has revealed that the massive second life the show enjoyed on streaming led to major life changes.
The show, which will see its first spin-off series The Paper release on September 4, was originally a huge success, running for nine seasons.
The American spin-off is inarguably bigger than the UK original, however, it took on another level of success during COVID-19.
This saw The Office become the most watched show in the world in 2020 by a huge distance.
Advert
Netflix viewers in the US alone watched the show for 57 billion minutes in 2020, 17 billion minutes clear of the next most successful.
This led Peacock to be entered into a bidding war with their own company to earn the rights back to the show, paying $500 million to become the sole host of the show in the US.
Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin in the show, spoke about how this massive resurgence in interest in The Office changed his life.
Appearing on the Lightweights Podcast with Joe Vulpis, Baumgartner recalled calling Rainn Wilson in 2020 saying: “Why does it feel like the show is bigger now then it was when it was on?”
Wilson supposedly responded quite simply, saying that it was because ‘it is'.
Whilst Baumgartner acknowledges that it was still a big show, with 23 million viewers tuning into the show live at its peak, but recounted how he noticed his life changing due to its popularity on streaming.
He said: “Suddenly it’s like ‘oh I can’t walk through the airport’.
“I’m not going to [the mall], I’m not going there, I can’t go there anymore.”
He also recalled how it changed the number of fans who would come up to him and whereas before it would just be to say 'hello', it would now be to take videos or pictures of him while in public.
The actor also stated that, when the streaming numbers came out, it made sense as they were not only number one, but were almost double the number two.
He pointed out that, in addition to the 57 billion minutes on Netflix, they were also on Comedy Central ’24 hours a day’, which isn’t counted by the numbers.
In the interview, Baumgartner also spoke about upcoming spin-off The Paper and said that showrunner Greg Daniels had not yet asked him to come back, but that he’d ‘do anything Greg asked’.
The upcoming series will focus on a midwestern newspaper company with Oscar Nunez named as the only actor from the original series set to return.
It will star Domnhall Gleeson, who is appearing alongside Nunez and Sabrina Impacciatore.
Topics: Celebrity, Netflix, TV, TV and Film, The Office, Podcast
Michael Slavin