Does the American sitcom die with it?

After ten years, the will-they, won’t-they romance of Ross and Rachel was finally resolved on Thursday night.

More than 51 million Americans tuned in to the hour-long final episode of Friends - to see the two characters finally get together.

Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel chose to stay in New York with her man, rather than pursue her career dream in Paris.

All the cast moved out of their lavish apartments, each leaving behind a room key.

Monica gave birth to twins and prepared to move to the suburbs with Chandler, Phoebe was already married, and Joey headed to LA to get serious about his acting career – and star in a spin-off sitcom.

The show’s dominance of the ratings was expected to be such that nostalgia channel TV Land suspended its programming for the duration of the show, instead screening live pictures of its staff watching Friends on the NBC network

However, the anticipated audience falls well short of TV's most popular swansong ever, M*A*S*H*, which was seen by 105 million viewers in 1983. The last Cheers had an audience of 80.4 million in 1993, and Seinfeld had 76.2 million in 1998.

But the series will live on forever in re-runs.

Comic Ellen DeGeneres said: "I'm gonna miss the friends, I mean, because we used to watch them once a week.

“And now, we're only gonna get to see them every day at 3, 5, 7 and 9 - right after Golden Girls, Seinfeld and Law & Order."

Many observers are claiming the end of Friends – coupled with Frasier’s last episode next weeks – means the end of the traditional American sitcom.

Doug Herzog, president of Comedy Central, said: "It's clearly a genre in desperate need of reinvention.

"They're just old-fashioned. They're all shot the same way. All have the same look, feel and tone. I feel as a viewer that they're horribly predictable. There's a whole generation that they don't speak to at all."

Published: 6 May 2004