Their years-long rewatch of “The Office” may be coming to an end, but “Office Ladies” is just getting started. On the Oct. 2 episode of “Office Ladies,” hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey announced the next phase of their popular podcast — which will begin when they complete their rewatch of the Emmy-winning comedy later this month.
As of early November, “Office Ladies” will move to a twice-a-week format. The Wednesday episodes will be called “Office Ladies 6.0″ — the new title is a reference to the Season 1 episode “Hot Girl,” when boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) insults Pam (Fischer), by comparing her to traveling purse saleswoman Katy (Amy Adams). “You’re like the new and improved Pam!” Michael says in front of both of them, causing the awkwardness in which he revels. “Pam 6.0.” The first guest on “Office Ladies 6.0″ — on the Nov. 6 episode — will be the person responsible for bringing together the show’s ensemble, famed casting director Allison Jones. Future episodes, Fischer and Kinsey said, will feature new interviews, more stories from the set, their patented “deep dives” into random topics and in-depth character studies. As an example of that upcoming feature, they said they’re currently working on an episode about Michael Scott, with the promise of more to come. Fischer said: “I hope we’ll do that for every character at some point.”
In addition to “Office Ladies 6.0,” they’re rerunning the rewatch over from the beginning — along with new material — in a podcast that will begin on Nov. 11 called “Second Drink.” This title refers to the show’s Season 2 premiere episode “The Dundies,” when an extremely wasted Pam schools Jim (John Krasinski) on the art of making the most of frozen drinks. As a giggly Pam sucks on a straw, Jim says, “I think those might be empty.” Pam replies: “No, no, ’cause the ice melts, and then it’s like second drink.” These episodes will drop on Mondays, starting with the series premiere. As Kinsey described “Second Drink” during the podcast, “Every Monday we will be rerunning the rewatch library in order with bonus tidbits at the top of every episode.”
Among the first rewatch podcasts, “Office Ladies” premiered on Oct. 16, 2019 as an Earwolf production, and over the summer, switched platforms from SiriusXM to Audacy. By the end of this month, Fischer and Kinsey — who played Pam Beesly and Angela Martin, respectively, from the series premiere of “The Office” on March 24, 2005 until its finale on May 16, 2013 — will have taken listeners through all 201 episodes of the NBC comedy. On Wednesday’s episode, Fischer said, “These final four episodes of the rewatch — there was just so much stuff that we didn’t want to miss, particularly with the finale, that we needed an extra week to gather everything.” Kinsey then teased, “We have a certain special guest that’s going to be joining us in the studio for our very last episode, and we couldn’t record that until he was available.” At that point, Fischer mock-scolded Kinsey for giving away that the guest is a “he,” but added, “This particular thing is something we’ve talked about wanting to do for our final episode since we started the podcast.”
“The Office” was created by Greg Daniels, based on the British version of the series, created by Ricky Gervais — also its star — and Stephen Merchant. Though the American version flirted with cancellation in its early seasons, NBC stuck with it, and “The Office” is now considered to be one of the greatest TV shows of all time. During the pandemic, “The Office” gained new popularity — and a whole new generation of fans, as families watched the show together for comfort. Most recently, the show has again been in the news because of a new Australian version of “The Office” set to premiere on Prime Video this month (with Felicity Ward in the lead role), and Daniels’ new iteration of the series, unofficially titled “The Paper” — with co-creator Michael Koman — expected on Peacock next year.
According to Audacy, “Office Ladies” has more than 400 million downloads. In Edison Research’s stats for the Top 50 podcasts in the United States for the second quarter of 2024, “Office Ladies” appeared at No. 34, and more than a milion listeners follow the show on Spotify. In 2022, “Office Ladies” won a Webby Award, and that year, Fischer and Kinsey also published the book “The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There.”
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