The world of The Office is returning to the small screen in the 2025 TV schedule for the first time since 2013, but not for more antics from Michael Scott, Jim Halpert, and/or Dwight Schrute. The Paper will premiere in September as the long-awaited spinoff of one of the best sitcoms in NBC history, with the ten-episode first season releasing on Peacock as a streaming original.
The premise of the new series is that the documentary crew from Dunder Mifflin on The Office relocated to Toledo, Ohio to start filming the publisher of a historic Midwestern newspaper and the attempt to bring it back to life. Domhnall Gleeson plays the editor-in-chief, who also seemingly is the voice of reason at the Toledo Truth Teller.
Since The Paper is a streaming series and I’ve watched plenty of NBC over the years without seeing ads en masse for what’s available with a Peacock subscription, I wasn’t expecting to see promotion in primetime on the network. I’m glad to be wrong on that count, but it reminds me of the change to the release schedule that I’m afraid might work against it.
The final weeks before the fall TV season begins tend to be exciting for NBC’s competition shows, and this week featured the Season 17 finale of American Ninja Warrior, the latest round of live America’s Got Talent quarterfinals with a snazzy Terry Crews, and Songs & Stories with Kelly Clarkson. I’ve been tuning in, and noticed that NBC is airing promos for The Paper during commercial breaks. It’s all one big NBCUniversal family?
With the streaming original debuting on September 4, now could be the ideal time for some extra buzz out of primetime. If you’re not a live NBC viewer, I can tell you that the quick ads are snippets from the longer trailer to drop jokes without leaning on Oscar as a character from The Office.
I didn’t count how often the promos aired on Tuesday night while I was enjoying Kelly Clarkson dueting with Gloria Estefan, but I’ve seen them enough to pretty much be able to recite the joke about one Toledo Truth Teller journalist getting his writing experience from tweeting, with a woman in the office confusing “self-deprecating” with “self-defecating.”
They’re not my favorite jokes from what I’ve seen of The Paper so far, but perhaps any buzz is good buzz when there are so many TV options out there. I just wish that the release model hadn’t changed, because I’m afraid the buzz won’t last very long.
Peacock Changed The Release Model
When the details about The Paper‘s premiere were announced in early August, the release schedule was for the first four episodes to release on September 4, with two new episodes following every Thursday until the finale on September 25. As somebody who has gotten weary enough of shows releasing episodes on the binge model, I was happy to see a weekly schedule for the new show, which would also add another similarity to The Office.
Then, just a couple of weeks before the premiere, Variety reported that the weekly release schedule was switching over to the binge model. All ten episodes of Season 1 will now be available on Peacock starting on September 4. No details were announced about why the weekly release was changed to a full season release, but I can’t help but be bummed.
With not all subscribers necessarily watching as soon as the episodes are available, there might not be as much conversation happening as there could be with just a couple of episodes per week. Plus, no matter how funny it is, The Paper could be lost in the television shuffle by releasing every episode in one fell swoop when fall TV season is about to start.
Admittedly, The Paper likely won’t be any more serialized than The Office was, but shows like Abbott Elementary and St. Denis Medical both prove that mockumentaries can still become hits with episodes debuting weekly. I just wish The Paper got the same chance.
All of this said, the sky isn’t falling on The Paper just because the streaming service changed the release schedule. You can plan on checking the series out starting on Thursday, September 4 on Peacock. In addition to Domhnall Gleeson and The Office vet Oscar Nuñez , The Paper stars Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, and Tim Key.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(471x244:473x246)/CNN-New-Years-Eve-with-Anderson-Cooper-123124-9952e5f00fc1425f87113ba2bfb97b29.jpg "Anderson Cooper Says He Once ‘Hated’ New Year’s Eve While Co-Hosting CNN Broadcast")
