Ray Romano And Everybody Loves Raymond Creator Talk Celebrating Sitcom’s 30th Anniversary Despite Premiere Airing 29 Years Ago: ‘We Rounded Up’

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Following the success of reunion specials for shows like Friends and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Everybody Loves Raymond is getting one too, planned to air before the end of 2025. CBS is reuniting Ray Romano, the show’s creator Phil Rosenthal, and other cast members to celebrate the show’s nine seasons. However, fans may remember the show actually started in 1996, not thirty years ago. Romano and Rosenthal jokingly addressed this discrepancy.

A special reunion celebrating the 30th anniversary of Everybody Loves Raymond is coming soon! The 90-minute event will bring back stars like Brad Garrett and Patricia Heaton, along with hosts Ray Romano and David Rosenthal. While fans might do the math and realize it’s actually the 29th anniversary (the show aired from 1996 to 2005), the hosts acknowledge the slight discrepancy. They recently told TVLine…

  • ROMANO: “I told you he’s a troublemaker! [Laughs]”
  • ROSENTHAL: “We can say it’s the 30th anniversary of Ray and I meeting.”
  • ROMANO: “Yeah, we rounded up.”

Even though the 30th anniversary of the show isn’t until September 2026, the star and host felt like celebrating a bit early. You see, 2025 actually marked 30 years since they first met! I heard from an interview that they’ve been trying to get a reunion going for ten years, but CBS just wasn’t interested. Five years ago, it was the same story. But thankfully, there are new people in charge at CBS now, and they were really enthusiastic about making it happen!

Bringing the cast back together for a reunion was the best way to revisit the show, as a full revival had been ruled out years ago following the passing of Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts. Ray Romano also recently shared he was hesitant to tamper with the legacy of Everybody Loves Raymond. A reunion special never quite felt right until now – almost 29 years after the show first aired. They continued to explain:

  • ROSENTHAL: “It’s technically the 30th anniversary since the show got going. But we filmed the pilot in the spring of ’96, and we were on the fall of ’96. But you and I met certainly in ’95, right?”
  • ROMANO: “Yes. The upfronts of the following year was when they announced that we were going to be on the air, and the upfronts are in May.”
  • ROSENTHAL: “Yes, May of ’96, and we’re on in the fall of ’96. We filmed the pilot, probably in February or March of ’96, but we met before then and had to write the pilot, so you could technically say the show was born in ’95.”

As a huge fan, I totally understand why Philip Rosenthal and Ray Romano had a bit of a challenge getting everyone back together for the reunion special, which is coming out in late November 2025 – it’s been almost 30 years since the pilot was filmed back in early 1996! It’s amazing they managed to pull it off, and it’s really touching that the special will honor Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, and even Sawyer Sweeten, who we lost way too soon. It’s going to be emotional, remembering Marie, Frank, and young Geoffrey, but so worth it to see everyone together again.

I just saw the trailer, and it’s amazing! It really gives you a feel for how they rebuilt the set, and you can even see the live audience – it was so special to see everyone back together again!

Don’t miss the Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion special on CBS, Monday, November 24th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time! If you can’t catch it live, you can stream it the next day on Paramount+. Please note that because the special is 90 minutes long, new episodes of The Neighborhood and FBI will not air as scheduled that night. However, a new episode of Watson will still air at its usual time of 10 p.m. Eastern.

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2025-11-20 06:38