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During NBC’s pre-upfront conference call this afternoon, NBC brass were asked to comment on The Office star Steve Carell’s recent remarks in a BBC radio interview that he intends to exit NBC’s top comedy series at the end of next season when his contract is up. NBC’s primetime entertainment president Angela Bromstad said: “We hope we can keep him around for a long time.” (That could happen even if Carell leaves The Office as he has a producing deal with sister studio UMS).
But NBC Uni TV Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin added:”The Office is a great ensemble show, and the producers are preparing in the event he chooses to move on.” Who do you think should take over the leading man role on the show if Carell leaves?
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Let’s hope Jeff Zucker is not involved in the negotiations, otherwise Carell will wind up at TBS.
from one daily show alum to another…Rob Corddry would be amazing on the show. he has the same if not better comedic timing than carell and he constantly borders on the line between being lovable and a jerk.
NBC should cancel the show ,otherwise get Norm Macdonald, Steve Guttenberg or Judge Reinhold
YES.
Not Norm MacDonald. This show worked but Steve Carrell is LIKEABLE.
And Norm is LOVABLE.
Lovable? As in ‘the most boring person on TV’ lovable?
Anyone who thinks he is amusing is totally humor-impaired.
I’ll bet he’s replaced with an SNL has-been, that’s what NBC’s Thursday night lineup is full of.
Not really “has-beens” so much as people who used to be on SNL. But if that makes you feel better, then hey, good for you.
Haven’t people had enough of that snoozer? Carell has. That’s why he’s gone. Do people who work in boring offices really come home, sit on the couch, and watch it? If that’s the case, then maybe they’ll watch a new show with Carell sitting on a couch watching TV.
It’s only a snoozer if you’re not smart enough to “get it”. Which apparently you’re not.
no one needs to replace him, just end the show
its time has come, what more is there to do?
having jim and pam get married then have a baby has changed the show completely.
Considering his middling U.S. film career (so far), maybe Ricky Gervais would be available…
I have to agree with Bernard…My first thought was to get in Ricky Gervais, I mean he already has his hands in the show and he has played the matching role.
If not, I’d say also to just end the show…
I’ve always wanted them to end the show by having them all watch documentary they’ve been filming for these past few years. I thought that would be a nice ending. But we don’t watch them watch it. They just like go into the conference room or something to watch it and close the door.
Cool.
Maybe I am totally mistaken, but, The Office is not the only show that does this “The characters are sitting somewhere talking to some 4th wall interviewer/the audience directly” thing, Parks & Rec does it, as well as Modern Family, and probably a few other shows I don’t watch.
My feeling on that was always though that this was some sort of “inside the mind of” the characters, not that we are really led to believe the characters actually in “real life” are going somewhere every day to be “interviewed”.
Some of those shows are more of a “look into the mind of said character” but The Office makes nods to the cameras. For example, Michael always makes sure to wear a mic so his voice can be heard, and in one episode he and a woman go into his office during a party to have sex and unknowingly the camera picks up the sound. Michael realized it’s happening and tried to turn the volume down, only to turn it higher.
Even in the rerun I saw tonight (The one where Pam’s ex tries to punch Jim but Dwight maces him), at the end of the episode when Dwight and Angela are making out Jim walks out of the bathroom and sees them, turns and jumps when he sees the camera on him, and then talks to the camera in the bathroom.
Another example is when Jim visits Pam at her dorm. He tricks the camera man into turning around so he can lock him out of Pam’s room so they’ll be alone.
I watch waaaaaay too much tv.
I’m not a fan of the show and even I think if Carell leaves they should cancel.
And Bernard, despite his not yet successful film career Ricky Gervais doesn’t need to work, at all. Why would he wanna supplant Carell?
Gervais has credibility. They could write in a merger between the two paper companies, he could reprise his original UK The Office character.
I think they should probably either end the show, or bring back Amy Ryan as Holly to take over as the boss. She was hysterical during her run, and having a really odd woman in that role would be a nice little shake up and give them new comedic territory.
Better than COOL. Amy Ryan rocks. AND IS LIKEABLE.
Ted McGinley. He makes every successful franchise better!
They should have ended the show two years ago. Jim and Pam getting married was confirmation was the last straw for me.
IF they are to continue without Carell (bad idea), what about Andy Daly or Norm MacDonald? Both hilarious guys who could bring something really fun and different to show show.
I assure you that my grammar is better than it was in my previous comment. Doing this on my iPhone was a bad idea.
My two cents…
Since his film career is in tatters, Sean William “Stifler” Scott could step in to play the typical middle management douchebag who gets promoted in corporate America.
You could totally see him as an ex frat boy who somehow lucks into that job and pisses everyone in the office off with his cocky insensitivity.
Just let him play Stifler as a manager, since Stifler is all that hack can play, and let him loose with all the supporting characters America has grown to love and watch it get very ugly/funny.
He’d be a different kind of moron than Michael Scott.
Lol…..are you his former agent or something? That came across as pretty bitter. He was fuuny in Role Models.
He was funny in Role Models. Playing Stifler again.
And no, I’m not his former agent. Just know how NBC/Uni’s minds work and they seem to love the retard.
He’d be perfect as the next manager of the Office since his form of douchebag, i.e. he was popular in school and peaked early, is very different from Michael Scott’s awkward loser who becomes branch manager.
The role of manager in the Office has to be a buffoon that everyone loves/hates/laughs at/feels superior to for the show to work.
a writer.
Stop it. Your Opinion Is “useless” and You. Can’t make yourself come off as smart. By. Puncuating?
You are a genius
They should just promote from within and give Ed Helms Michael Scott’s job. That’s if Helms is planning to stick around. His movie career seems pretty hot post-Hangover so he might have one foot out the door too. Ditto John Krasinski and Jenna Fisher. What I see really happening is one more full season with the regular cast, and then a half-assed eighth season with three or four guest appearances by Carell and the other leads, with most of the spotight placed on the minor characters.
The show use to be funny, Carell’s character was annoying, mean and hilarious. Compare the frst two seasons against the other’s, his character has become soft. They should just cancel the show.
The Office’s ratings have already fallen this season, more episodes are performing under 7 million viewers.
The ratings will only further drop if Carell leaves and they continue on without him. Maybe at the end of season three they could’ve replaced him and continued on with the show but if he were to leave after season seven the show will die and NBC will have to cancel the show just like Fox canceled That 70s Show after one season without two main characters.
That’s why having only one new comedy to start this fall is a HUGE mistake that will haunt NBC. Maybe Outsourced can be their number one comedy but the smart option would be to launch new comedies and if they perform well then in December announce that The Office will end in May since Carell seems ready to leave. If Outsourced disappoints it may be too late to give The Office a proper farewell next May if the midseason shows do well.
Does The Biggest Loser really need 2 hour episodes for their entire season? One hour of The Biggest Loser followed by a new comedy followed by Community which has great writing and a terrific cast. That opens up a slot on Thursdays where another new comedy could’ve launched.
Or have an hour of comedies on Wednesday to open the night followed by Undercovers then SVU at a proper time period. If comedies on Tuesday and Wednesday fail then they can easily be replaced by expanding Biggest Loser and putting Parenthood and LOLA on the schedule. At least they would’ve tried to start something because if The Office tanks in the ratings then Thursdays will still be a problem for NBC. If 30 Rock at 5.5 million viewers is the biggest draw then that’s a problem.
Steve Carrel is boring. The show itself is boring. Who really cares?
I really don’t see this working.
Who could replace Carrell? Hm. John Oliver?
I’d love to see them try to replace Carrell with Chevy Chase and really crash and burn!
The correct thing to do would be to end the show and let it go out with some grace.
Therefore Zucker will do the opposite.
Stephen Colbert.
I agree with Otto. I used to work in a boring office. Who wants to come home and relive your sucky life on the tube? As a whole I never “got” why people thought the show was soooooooo great. Two characters who stand above all of the others in an ensemble show, does not a great show make.
Just because someone isn’t making a film every three months doesn’t mean their careers are in tatters.
I have it on good authority that NBC are talking about RHYS DARBY (AKA Murray the manager from Flight of the Conchords).
Personally I think Rhys is awesome. Have you seen his new commercials? Also I think it’d be hilarious if Sabre gets invaded by kiwis.
obviously nbc realizes that the office is the only comedy they have going for them right now and its not at all surprising that they plan on continuing it even if he leaves