Hi, Emma

Are You Still Enjoying your Nap?

Well, it's officially 2020

There were a lot of things we were expecting for the beginning of 2020.
New music? Great Movies? Interesting series? What we weren't expecting, was for Noelle Sheldon, the baby who played Ross and Rachel's daughter on Friends responding to Chandler's 17-year-old joke from a 2003 episode celebrating her character's first birthday, that aired during the sitcom's tenth and final season called "The One with the Cake." In it, Ross tries to get Monica and Chandler to record a special message for Emma that he plans to give her on her 18th birthday.

"Just woke up from the best nap of all time, Happy 2020!! (ft. my poorly done photoshop) Hope everyone has an excellent year full of family, friends, and laughter!!"

Noelle isn't the only one who looks back on her Friends experience fondly. Last September, her sister Cali posted a throwback photo from the set to celebrate the show's 25th anniversary. She even referred to Jennifer Aniston as .. wait for it "MOM." 

Ugh, the feels.

For those who didn't know the baby wasn't only one girl they were twins shared the role of Emma!!

For Friends loyal fans, this sweet message from the twins who played Emma was the perfect way to kick off 2020. And they are all grown up.

Ross and Rachel must be so proud.

The interesting thing is that Friends may have ended in 2004, but the show has remained popular and binge-worthy 15 years on!

As a result of the continued support from fans, the cast continues to make significant profits from their iconic roles.

While some episodes and themes of the show may not have aged well, that hasn’t stopped Warner Bros from earning $1bn a year from syndication revenue, according to USA Today.

For the six main cast members, who earn two percent of the show’s syndication revenue, it means an annual income of $20m each - just from reruns.

When Friends first aired, each cast member was paid $22,500 per episode, according to MarketPlace.

However, by the third season, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox,  Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry were making $100,000 per episode.

By season nine, the cast had negotiated a salary of $1m each per episode, at that time that was the largest deal ever for a 30-minute television show.

During negotiations two years prior, it had been decided that the cast would receive syndication profits, a benefit that had previously only been offered to stars who had ownership rights in a show, according to The New York Times.

And despite its 15 years since the last episode aired, it seems likely that the six main cast members will continue to profit from the sitcom,  as Netflix proved Friends is still an extremely desirable commodity when it paid a reported $80m to Warner Bros to keep the show on the streaming service through 2019.

Unfortunately, it is officially off Netflix and won't return to another streaming platform until May.

“HBO Max will bring together the diverse riches of WarnerMedia to create programming and user experiences not seen before in a streaming platform," WarnerMedia Entertainment and direct to consumer chairman Robert Greenblatt said in a statement last year. 

"HBO’s world-class programming leads the way, the quality of which will be the guiding principle for our new array of Max Originals, our exciting acquisitions, and the very best of the Warner Bros. libraries, starting with the phenomenon that is Friends."

Let us know your favorite Friends character and the episode you love the most!