Grimm has been the little show that could on Friday nights on NBC for the past five seasons. It has outlasted shows like Constantine and Dracula and will be back for a sixth and final season this winter. While news of the show's cancellation may seem sad for fans, the show's creative team isn't too upset that the series is finally saying sayonara. In fact, showrunner James Kouf recently revealed there's at least one reason he is fine with the show getting cancelled, and that reason has to do with running out of ideas. Here's what he had to say:
You know, 123 times through the fairy-tale world, and you start getting a little slim.
So far, Grimm has aired 110 episodes on NBC. Some time after the show was renewed for Season 6, we learned that the show's episode order would be cut from 22 to 13, which seemed like a pretty big tragedy at the time. It also seemed like it was an indication that Grimm might be ending, and a few short months later, NBC announced that Season 6 would, in fact, be the final season of the series. This led to Grimm getting held until midseason---a move that was confounding and somewhat annoying for fans. Regardless, getting a shorter episode order seems to have been just the ticket for showrunners James Kouf and David Greenwalt, who told TV Line they were running low on supernatural ideas for the series.
In fact, the two men said they were a little panicked when they first learned NBC had renewed them for 22 episodes this season...
There was a chance that we would have gotten 22 [eps], and we were going, 'Oh my God. That's a long trek.' We did that for five years.
Supernatural shows have been known to last longer than six seasons, of course. Supernatural is currently airing its 12th season on the CW and has really shown no signs of slowing down or losing its audience. True Blood lasted for seven seasons before calling it quits, although it aired fewer episodes than Grimm. Buffy The Vampire Slayer lasted for seven seasons and 144 episodes, making its run a little longer than Grimm's will ultimately be.
While fans may not be as excited about the show's shortened run during its final season, the good news is that Grimm knows it is ending, and that means the writers and the creative team have worked to craft a real ending to the series. Not all shows get that luxury. We've seen plenty of dramas and even comedies---here's looking at you My Name Is Earl---end on a cliffhanger before. That's not something that should be happening with Grimm. And if you like what you saw on the series, the Grimm creators already have another show in the works.
NBC's Friday night lineup returns to the schedule on Friday, January 6 at 8 p.m. ET. It will be followed by newcomer Emerald City at 9 p.m. To find out what other TV is hitting the schedule at midseason, head here.
