TV Shows Like Friends
If you like Friends, here are 10 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
NBC · Comedy · Friends is ended
Friends works because it keeps its premise simple: a tight group of people who actually like each other, stuck in the middle of adult life before they've quite figured it out. The apartments, the coffee shop, the revolving door of relationships, the running jokes between people who know each other too well, all of it adds up to something that feels lived-in. The comedy is warm without being soft. The show lets its characters be ridiculous but never loses sight of the fact that you're supposed to root for them.
The best shows like Friends
1. Seinfeld
If what you loved about Friends was the New York setting and the comedy of people overcomplicating ordinary situations, Seinfeld delivers that in spades. The four main characters navigate the same city with the same self-absorption, and the show's observational sharpness gives it a distinct edge. It won't give you the emotional warmth of Friends, but as a portrait of a friend group making mountains out of molehills in Manhattan, it's hard to beat.
Stream on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
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2. How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is probably the most direct spiritual successor to Friends on this list, built around a group of five close friends bouncing between an apartment and their favorite bar while chasing careers and relationships. The romantic storylines and the ensemble chemistry will feel immediately familiar to any Friends fan. The framing device adds a layer of nostalgia that some viewers love and others find gimmicky, but the core hang is very much in the same spirit.
Stream on Hulu, YouTube TV, USA Network
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3. The King of Queens
The King of Queens shifts the focus from single young adults to a working-class married couple in Queens, so the energy is different, but the comedy of a small household world thrown into chaos by an outside force (in this case, a live-in father-in-law) scratches a similar itch. It's a show about people who care about each other even when they're driving each other up the wall. Fans of the domestic friction between Ross and Rachel, or the Geller family dynamics, will find plenty to enjoy here.
Stream on Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Peacock Premium, Philo
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4. 2 Broke Girls
2 Broke Girls centers on a friendship between two very different women trying to build something together in New York, which puts it in the same basic emotional territory as the female friendships in Friends. The tone is more abrasive and the humor is sharper, but the bond between the two leads is the beating heart of the show. If you liked watching people figure out their lives from a starting point of not much, this one has that.
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5. Will & Grace
Will & Grace puts a best-friend duo at its center, sets them in a New York apartment, and surrounds them with a small supporting cast who get funnier the better you know them, which is a recipe Friends fans will recognize immediately. The banter is fast and the relationship dynamics are specific in a way that rewards long-term watching. It handles bigger themes than Friends usually did, but the comedy and the warmth keep it grounded.
Stream on Hulu
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More on shows like Friends
Fans of Friends tend to want the same things from their next show: a core group whose dynamics you can map out in your head, a city that feels like a character in its own right, and enough relationship drama to keep things moving without tipping into soap opera. They also want to laugh, not just smile politely. The shows below hit most of those notes, some more squarely than others.
Seinfeld shares the New York setting and the social observation, but it runs cooler. Where Friends wants you to feel something, Seinfeld is mostly interested in how absurd people are. How I Met Your Mother is probably the closest structural match, a group of friends in an apartment-and-bar world, though it wraps everything in a framing device that divides opinion. Will & Grace puts two best friends in a New York apartment and mines their relationship for both laughs and real feeling, much like the Ross-and-Rachel dynamic but sharper around the edges. The King of Queens trades Manhattan for Queens and young singles for a married couple, but the domestic comedy and the sense of a small world shared between a fixed group of people will feel familiar. 2 Broke Girls is the outlier here in setting and tone, grittier and more acerbic, but the female friendship at its center and the New York backdrop give it real common ground with Friends.
None of these shows are Friends, which sounds obvious but is worth saying. Each one pulls the formula in a different direction. Seinfeld goes colder, How I Met Your Mother goes more sentimental, Will & Grace goes sharper, The King of Queens goes more domestic, and 2 Broke Girls goes rawer. Depending on which part of Friends you actually loved most, one of them will fit better than the others.
More shows like Friends
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Friends?
- Seinfeld is the most popular show similar to Friends in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Friends still on the air?
- Of the 10 shows similar to Friends listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Friends?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.