Will Film Stars Like Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell Boost The Office Ratings?

Last year when Steve Carell announced that he would be leaving The Office, NBC was not sure how to replace the actor, who had gone on to develop a successful film career for himself. Would they promote from within Dunder Mifflin or hire an outsider with as much star power as Carell? In a surprise move, NBC overshot expectations by recruiting two of the biggest box office stars (comically speaking) to Scranton: Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey. Can these comedians boost ratings for the series, which in its seventh season, is slumping number-wise?

If you're a fan of the The Office, you might recall that NBC found great success with the A-list actor stunt once before in its fifth season, when during the Super Bowl lead-out episode, Jack Black, Jessica Alba and Cloris Leachman (she'll always be A-list at Movieline) guest-starred as actors in a movie that Andy, Pam and Jim pirated. Thanks to the prime time slot and special guest-stars, The Office hosted its largest audience ever at over 22 million viewers.

Hoping to replicate (at least part of) that ratings boost, The Office brought Will Ferrell on last week for a four-episode arc as Deangelo Vickers, the paper company's temporary manager. As hilarious as he was, and as big of a draw Ferrell's name was for the network, the episode "Training Day" was only the third highest-rated of the season and was watched by over a million less people than last season's "Niagara" episode which featured Jim and Pam's long-awaited wedding. (It failed to attract 8 million audience members which the series has regularly done in seasons past.) This proves that either: 1) Loyal Office fans don't care about big names; 2) Will Ferrell's debut was not promoted enough or 3) Nothing can boost the series' ratings during its seventh-season stretch.

Either way, fans will get another chance to tune in for an A-list turnout on May 19 for the season finale in which Jim Carrey (JIM CARREY!), Ricky Gervais, Will Arnett, James Spader, Ray Romano and Catherine Tate all compete for Steve Carell's office manager position. Do you think that any combination of A-listers could boost a seventh season series at this point? Weigh in in the comment section below.