‘The Office’ Streaming Surprise: Peacock Setting Up Paywall for Season 3 and Beyond

"The Office" is being pulled from Netflix at the end of the month and will move to Peacock in 2021.

NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock offers a free ad-supported plan for subscribers, but anyone hoping to stream “The Office” when it becomes available on Peacock in 2021 is going to have to break out their wallets. According to The Wrap, NBCUniversal is paywalling “The Office” on Peacock starting in Season 3. The first two seasons of the beloved NBC comedy will be available to stream via the platform’s base free ad-supported plan, but the last six seasons will only available on Peacock Premium ($4.99 a month with ads or $9.99 a month with no ads).

“The Office” has called Netflix its streaming home for the last several years, but it was announced in summer 2019 that the sitcom would be leaving Netflix at the end of 2020. Moving “The Office” from Netflix to Peacock is a big blow to the former, where “The Office” has long ranked as one of the platform’s most popular titles. A Wall Street Journal report in 2019 claimed Netflix users spend more time streaming “The Office” than any other show on the streaming platform.

In addition to all nine seasons of “The Office,” Peacock will also be streaming what it calls “The Office: Superfan Episodes,” extended additions of installments featuring never-before-seen content. All of the “Superfan” episodes will only be available on Peacock Premium. NBCU Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer and Digital Enterprises Bonnie Hammer said in September 2019 that even more “Office” could be coming to the streamer as its the company’s priority to get a reboot up and running.

“It is my hope and goal that we do an ‘Office’ reboot,” Hammer said. “’The Office’ comes back to us in January 2021. It is my hope that we can figure what that great reboot would be. We are having conversations… We want there to be some connective tissue to what we also have in the library.”

Any potential “Office” reboot might have to move forward without leading star Steve Carell, who left the comedy series after its seventh season. Carell has repeatedly said he’s not interested in reviving “The Office,” adding, “The show is way more popular now than when it was on the air. I just can’t see it being the same thing, and I think most folks would want it to be the same thing, but it wouldn’t be. Ultimately, I think it’s maybe best to leave well enough alone and just let it exist as what it was.”

“The Office” begins streaming on Peacock in January.