September marks the arrival of a spin-off to one of the most streamed TV shows of all time, says streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

If you thought the story of The Office had well and truly reached its end then the show’s creators have news for you.

The Paper, a follow up to the beloved sitcom, has just launched its first season.

It’s not the cubicles of paper company Dunder Mifflin where this new series is set, but rather the production desk of a struggling newspaper in Ohio called the Toledo Truth-Teller.

Domhnall Gleeson stars as Ned Sampson, an ambitious editor who wants to defibrillate the volunteer-run paper and return it to the days of being a community institution.

Alongside Gleeson is Sabrine Impacciatore playing Esmeralda Grand, a fiery, clickbait-driven managing editor who has some very different ideas about the future of the paper.

So how does it all tie into The Office?

The connection is loose but it hasn’t stopped the show being firmly marketed as a spin-off.

So far Oscar Martinez, the savvy former employee of Dunder Mifflin, is the only returning character having now taken up a new role at the Toledo Truth-Teller.

The same documentary crew that featured in The Office are now back to chart the day-to-day life of the newsroom and Oscar is far from happy to see them again.

Despite being the only returning character in the show’s trailers it doesn’t mean others might not also be back.

Rumours are already circulating Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott may even make a cameo, but time will tell.

The Office (US) is one of the most streamed shows of all time. In 2020 at the peak of the pandemic its popularity massively resurged, with close to 60 billion minutes of the show streamed by households across the world.

It wasn’t always the hit it’s known as today though.

When the sitcom first aired in 2005 the ratings were so low that NBC actually considered cancelling it.

Fortunately, a different era of tech was just emerging that would save it.

Apple had just added videos to buy on its online platform iTunes; videos that could be downloaded to people’s iPods.

By then the iPhone wasn’t even out. These were the fifth generation iPods that today look like bricks, but back then were considered the slickest piece of tech on the market.

The Office just so happened to be one of the first television shows to become available on iTunes and, with thousands of people trying to download whatever bit of content they could get their hands on, it took off.

Thanks to the iPod, by the second season the show had secured enough of a fan base to keep it alive and once it found its own feet rather than trying too hard to emulate its British predecessors, The Office became a phenomenon.

In a way, it could be considered something of an early version of streaming and to this day online space is where the show has continued to dominate.

Can The Paper recreate that kind of success?

Its dropped all 10 episodes in one go, something less and less popular shows are doing these days.

The decision indicates that the creators are hoping the binge model of watching, like what was once done on Itunes, will see the popularity ignite again.

In Australia, the show is available only on Foxtel’s streaming platform Binge.

Last year an Australian version of The Office released on Amazon Prime Video and despite brutal reactions from fans it still managed to become one of the most watched Australian debuts of all time.

At this time a decision on whether it will get a second season is still very much in the air, but it’s not looking good.

Fans can only hope that with some better writing, The Paper won’t be another wasted spin-off bound for the shredder.