The ill-fated “Friends” spin-off “Joey” is finally available to stream for the first time since it went off-air. The streaming age debut of “Joey” comes almost 20 years after the show was cancelled by NBC back in 2006 after just two seasons. Whether modern-day “Friends” fans will be more impressed by the series than audiences of the early-2000s, however, remains to be seen.

For whatever reason, when “Friends” ended after 10 seasons in 2004, NBC decided to take Matt LeBlanc’s character and give him an entire show, which followed Joey as he moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of stardom. Of course, every “Friends” fan loved Joey, but the idea of him being removed from the main group seemed a dubious premise at best. Fans’ concerns were sadly confirmed when the spin-off aired. “Friends” might’ve had some bad episodes, but even they weren’t quite as dire as “Joey,” which failed to capture much, if any, of its predecessor’s magic.

“Joey,” which debuted in 2004, tried to surround its star with a supporting cast that would play well with his lovably dim personality, introducing Drea de Matteo as Joey’s sister, Gina Tribbiani, Andrea Anders as his next-door neighbor and landlady Alexis Garrett, and Paulo Constanzo as Michael Tribbiani, Joey’s nephew. The show also featured Jennifer Coolidge as Joey’s agent, Bobbie Morganstern. Alas, none of this could save the series from a significant ratings decline, and it was taken off-air in 2006.

Now, however, the first two episodes of the short-lived sitcom have been made available on the official “Friends” YouTube channel, introducing a whole new generation to the show.

“Joey” premiered in September 2004, just months after “Friends” wrapped up. NBC was clearly eager to fill the huge void left by its biggest show and hoped “Joey” was the series to do it. But as Deadline has noted, the show’s ratings quickly plummeted. When it first debuted “Joey” actually brought in a decent audience, with 18.6 million viewers tuning in for the pilot. Much of that seems to have been the result of the show airing in the “Friends” Thursday-night timeslot. Fairly quickly, though, those viewers decided that “Joey” wasn’t for them. The average viewership for season 1 was 10.2 million, which fell to 7.1 million for the second season. Things weren’t helped by NBC moving the series from its Thursday night spot, as the network pulled the show in December 2005 and reintroduced it in March 2006 in a new Tuesday-night timeslot. Two months later, however, NBC cancelled the show outright, leaving eight episodes unaired.

For now, just the first two episodes of “Joey” are available on the “Friends” YouTube channel. Whether more will be released remains up in the air, but it is interesting to see the show returning in the streaming age. This is, after all, the era where network shows of the past have enjoyed huge success among new audiences as part of a phenomenon recently dubbed “newstalgia.” That term actually refers to previously popular shows that have found renewed popularity on streaming, as was the case with a series like “Suits,” which enjoyed major success on Netflix in 2023 after finishing its USA network run four years prior. “Joey,” on the other hand, can’t claim to have ever been popular during its initial airing, but perhaps this two-episode drop is designed to test the waters in the streaming age. Younger audiences might well be kinder to Joey Tribbiani and his failed move westward. If this mini YouTube release proves even slightly popular, then, we might well see the full series drop on a streamer in the near future.