‘The Office’ Drew 22.9 Million Viewers With Its Most Unhinged Cold Open

No sitcom cold open will ever top The Office’s fire drill cold open. The sequence kicked off the two-part Season 5 episode titled “Stress Relief,” which would become the series ' most-watched episode by a landslide. More than 17 years later, the sequence remains one of the defining moments in The Office canon, even as Greg Daniels has expanded that universe with The Paper. The episode itself drew 22.9 million viewers following Super Bowl XLIII, giving the show its biggest audience ever.