NBC announced today that The Office’s finale, airing a week from Thursday on May 16th, will be extended from 60 to 75 minutes. An hour-long Office retrospective will air from 8 to 9pm and the final episode will air from 9 to 10:15pm. Greg Daniels told TV Line in March, “I was very excited with the footage we got. It’s very big. I’m going to beg NBC to super-size it or extend it.†This quote prompted Office fans to make a petition to get NBC to extend the episode, racking up over 20,000 signatures and causing NBC to acquiesce to fans’ and Daniels’s request.
Guest stars Mindy Kaling, BJ Novak, Matt Jones, Andy Buckley, Mike Schur, and Bobby Ray Shafer are set to return with Office newcomers Rachael Harris, Dakota Johnson, Joan Cusack, Ed Begley Jr., and Malcolm Barrett also making appearances. It was also revealed this week that Steve Carell will allegedly be returning for a cameo, so hopefully that extra 15 minutes is all him.