Why did Friends end?

The show eventually ran its course and all the characters met their happy endings hence the makers decided to end the show after 10 seasons.

Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The show first aired on September 22, 1994 and was a splendid success across the entire nation. Though it's been decades since the show ended in 2004, it still is considered to be one of the most popular shows around the world. With a massive fan following, Friends as a show and the characters in them are still iconic and relevant to this day.

The sitcom used to air on NBC and was about six best friends who go through all the aspects life has in store for them together. From the happy days to the miserable days, Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey made sure to stick with each other through it all. The show starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer playing the lead roles of the six best friends who stayed close to each other in Manhattan, New York.

Was Friends canceled?

No, Friends was not cancelled. The makers and the show’s actors made a joint decision to end the show on a good note. The show had a huge fan following and still to this day many yearn for the makers to announce that the show would return with new seasons. While many other sitcoms ran for a great amount of seasons, the makers of Friends felt, season 10 was enough to call it curtains.

During an Interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marta Kauffman and David Crane opened up on how the team was planning the show’s finale season. Initially, Friends was supposed to end with just 7 seasons. However, it kept on getting pushed ahead, and finally, everyone concluded that the 10th season of the show was final. David Carne confirmed that the decision was mutual between the makers and the actors of the show. He said, “Season 10, we said, 'We can't keep stopping and starting and rethinking everything.'"

Co-creator Marta Kauffman also shed some light on why they decided to end Friends with just 10 seasons. During the same interview, Kaufmann revealed that by the end of season 10, some of the actors were in their 40s and wanted to pursue other projects. That's when they knew they had to move on. Kauffman said, “For us, one of the things was: Everybody was growing up. This is part of why the show had to end. This was no longer that time in your life when your friends are your family. You're starting your own family."

Did Jennifer Aniston decide to leave Friends first?

Many probably don’t know but it was Jennifer Aniston who decided to leave the show first to pursue other projects. This decision led to the other cast members also making similar decisions. During a promotion of his memoir: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Aniston’s co-star Matthew Perry revealed that it was Jennifer Aniston who wanted to call time on the show.

The now-late actor mentioned how the show came to an end. In his memoir, Perry wrote, “Speaking about the show coming to a close, the truth was, we were all ready for Friends to be done.” He also added, “For a start, Jennifer Aniston had decided that she didn’t want to do the show anymore, and as we all made decisions as a group, that meant we all had to stop.” Matthew Perry also went on to reveal why Aniston decided to call it quits. He wrote. "Jennifer wanted to do movies; I had been doing movies all that time."

Perry concluded by writing, “Mostly by Jenny’s design, ten was a shortened season. But all the characters were basically happy at this point, too, and no one wants to watch a bunch of happy people doing happy things — what’s funny about that?”.