"Friends" is going off the air this spring, as the world knows. The concern for NBC is that it doesn't die before it's carted off stage.
   What ought to be the show's best year could turn out to be among its worst, with viewership thus far off by more than a quarter.
   With only a handful of original episodes left, because NBC agreed to let the cast film only 18 this season as part of the return agreement, "Friends" has to somehow pump major interest for the May finale, which at this point doesn't look like it will be the must-see event NBC was counting on.
   NBC must start building buzz for what is dangerously near becoming a non-event. 
  Thus the network has come up with a cute gimmick to get people watching again.
  With a massively hyped campaign starting today, “Friends” fans who are also America Online members can see clips of some 40 past episodes and vote for their six favorites, which will be shown from least to most popular during March and April.
   It will climax with the most popular episode, to air April 8, which will then lead into the final new episodes before the sitcom goes off the air for good. NBC hopes the gimmick will get people watching again and keep them until the May finale.
  The surprising thing is, as the show drifts into its final months, is that there are many fewer loyal fans these days. No one would have anticipated that two years ago, when "Friends" was the most-watched show on television.
   The reality is, “Friends” is dying. It’s not going out with its strongest episodes, neither viewership-wise nor creatively, and although it’s still NBC’s most popular comedy, it is clearly going off the air at the right time, before it risks even further slippage.
   Thus far this season, “Friends” is down 27 percent from last season’s 10.4 adults 18-49 rating. 
   Big buzz for CBS’s “Survivor: Pearl Islands,” also airing at 8 p.m., stole some viewers, and the highly anticipated “Survivor: All-Star” edition starting in February probably will steal even more.
  While NBC continues to predict that interest will pick up as the series finale nears, it’s worried. Media people speculate that “Friends” could attract less than half the 75 million viewers for “Seinfeld’s” blockbuster finale six years ago, since it’s averaging fewer than 20 million viewers this year, down from last year’s 21.8 million.
  And NBC cares mightily how the final episodes perform, because next season it will slot spinoff “Joey” into the same Thursday 8 p.m. time slot, hoping to get its first freshman hit since “Will & Grace” six years ago.
   Yet even the AOL scheme, different as it is, may not entice viewers back. With DVD releases of the first five seasons of “Friends” and syndicated episodes available every night, those older shows are easily available.