After sitcoms like Friends and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air got reunion specials in recent years, Everybody Loves Raymond is getting its turn before the end of the 2025 TV schedule. CBS is bringing star Ray Romano, series creator Phil Rosenthal, and more cast members together for a 30th anniversary special to celebrate the nine seasons on the air. That said, longtime fans might recall that the series premiered in 1996, which is not quite thirty years ago. The star and creator had a funny explanation for it.
The 90-minute special, called Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion, will reunite cast members Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Monica Horan, Madylin Sweeten, Sullivan Sweeten with hosts Romano and Rosenthal, which promises to be a blast from the past. For fans who are sticklers for math, however, the hosts acknowledged that 2025 is technically only the 29th anniversary of the comedy, which ran for nine seasons between 1996 – 2005. Speaking with TVLine, they said:
- 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.”
The 30th anniversary of the series premiere may not be until September 2026, but the star and the host could justify celebrating early since 2025 did mark three decades since they’d met. In fairness, Rosenthal also went on to tell the outlet that they’d been trying to make a reunion happen for ten years, but “CBS wasn’t into it,” and they still “weren’t into it” five years ago, but there “are new people” at CBS this year who were in fact into it.
The reunion was the preferred option to bring the cast back together on the small screen, since the idea of a revival was shot down years ago due to the deaths of Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts, and Romano admitted just last year that he’s “just a little protective of Everybody Loves Raymond.” The timing was never right for a reunion special until now… 29 years rather than 30 after the premiere. The pair went on:
- 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.”
The reunion special airing in late November 2025 is pretty close to the pilot filming in early 1996, so I think we can cut Philip Rosenthal and Ray Romano a break for bringing the cast back together this year by rounding up. The special will also include tributes to the late Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, who played the iconic Marie and Frank, as well as Sawyer Sweeten, who died in 2015 at the age of 19.
Check out the trailer, which gives a look at the recreation of the set as well as the live studio audience who got to see everybody back together again:
Tune in to CBS on Monday, November 24 at 8 p.m. ET for the Everybody Loves Raymond: 30th Anniversary Reunion special, or stream it next day with a Paramount+ subscription. The 90-minute special does mean that fans of The Neighborhood and FBI won’t see new episodes in their normal time slots on November 24, although a new episode of Watson will air at 10 p.m. ET as usual.