Initially, Greg Daniels and Michael Koman greeted their Peacock bosses’ idea to turn The Paper into a binge drop as if it was a plan dreamed up by Michael Scott himself. “For us, I think, we started off agitating for the drop, and partly it was because the original Office was a weekly thing,” Daniels, who co-created The Paper with Koman, recently told TheWrap. Peacock initially planned to release the first four episodes of the new Office spinoff at once, with two episodes following every week. Using that model, the season would have taken a little less than a month to air in its entirety—much less time than any individual season of The Office, but a lot more than the single day drop the streamer decided to pivot to just two weeks before its premiere. Daniels further explained that the divisive switcheroo “didn’t come from” him or Koman. “But then, [Peacock execs] had pointed out that most people who are big Office fans probably binged it because they saw it on Netflix or Peacock… So that argument kind of evaporated.”
The recent abject failure of Suits LA, which was canceled earlier this year after just one season, seems like a warning against making this kind of new programming decision based on the virality of a nostalgic title. Regardless, Daniels and Koman seem to have gotten on board since their initial rejection—at least somewhat. “The company is smart and they have a lot of strategic thinking, and [I’m] not sure [of] everything behind it,” Daniels said. “I also like the idea that the audience can make up their own mind about the show without maybe seeing everything in promos over the course of a longer release.” Koman also added that his “personal viewing habits align much more with a binge release… I like being able to just decide, especially if I’m into something, I get impatient now.”
Even if they initially wanted to echo The Office‘s release model, Daniels and Koman are adamant that The Paper should “live or die on its own merits” in other ways. While Oscar Nuñez reprises his Office role, for example, the creators promise that the rest of the series won’t “be propped up by constant guest appearances from the old show.” “Maybe there’ll be more of that if we are a success, but we really felt very protective of the old show and not wanting to do anything to undo the beautiful ending from the finale, where all the characters were going in different directions,” Daniels elaborated. “So the important thing to us was like, ‘Alright, let’s start this new crew and if you like it good, then maybe, maybe you’ll see more of that one.'”
We’ll get at least one more season to get to know the staff of the Toledo Truth Teller, which is populated with characters played by Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Alex Edelman, and more. The show nabbed an early renewal yesterday, ahead of its premiere. We’ll see if the binge model paid off and Peacock decides to use it a second time whenever the new season premieres.
