Jenna Fischer says the pace of Splitting Up Together ended her appetite for regular TV work. After the 2018 run, she decided that being a lead or even a regular on a television show was no longer a fit for her.
She described the schedule as “65, 70 hours a week,” and said, “The hours were so intense.” Fischer added, “I just decided after that that being, like, the lead of a television show or even a regular on a television show was not going to be a fit for me anymore.”
From nine seasons to one shift
Fischer had already spent nine seasons as Pam Beesly on The Office, which ended in 2013. By 2018, when she starred in Splitting Up Together on ABC, the workload had become the deciding factor, not the role itself. She said she really loved the cast, but the hours made the job incompatible with the life she wanted at home. Jenna Fischer backs Lucy Davis after 2025 breast cancer diagnosis
That move helped set up Office Ladies, the podcast Fischer launched with Angela Kinsey after Splitting Up Together was canceled. The show let her revisit The Office while controlling her own time, instead of giving that time to a television production schedule.
Two children, 65 to 70 hours
Fischer said her kids were “very small” during that period, and the pressure was not abstract. She said she was at “every school drop-off, every school pickup, every teacher conference, every concert,” and added, “I didn’t have to beg someone to go to the Halloween parade.”
She described podcasting as giving her both a steady income and the freedom to be present for family life, calling herself “the agent of my own time, the architect of my own time, so to speak.” That is the practical tradeoff here: the television schedule demanded most of her week, while the podcast gave her a structure she could actually own.
Office Ladies and the open door
With Office Ladies, Fischer and Kinsey turned their old sitcom into a schedule that worked around them rather than the other way around. For a performer who had already done a nine-season run, that is a clean career pivot, not a pause.
What Fischer did not answer was how long she plans to stay focused on podcasting instead of returning to regular television acting. For now, her line is clear: 65 to 70-hour weeks pushed her out of the TV grind, and the life she built after that is the one she chose to keep.
