Tribune renews 'Friends' through 2017

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Tribune has renewed Warner Bros.' Friends through 2017, the syndicator said Monday (June 27), keeping the veteran sitcom on the air through its third cycle.

Tribune renewed the show on 15 stations in a cash-plus-barter deal. For the first time, the show will air in TrueHD, which wasn't available when the show was airing in primetime.

"In every market there are two broadcast stations that are destinations for sitcom viewers," said Ken Werner, president of Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, in a statement. "Having iconic, reliable and proven sitcom performers that viewers and advertisers know and love is part of their DNA. Friends is one of those rare sitcoms that delivers the goods year in and year out."

Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. It's a Bright/Kauffman/Crane Production in association with Warner Bros. Television and is distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.