As TV viewers start to say farewell to 2018, worries may set in that one or many favorite shows might get cancelled soon after the new year begins. Modern Family fans have been experiencing that for years now without yet having to officially say goodbye. According to star Julie Bowen, it looks like rumors about Modern Family ending with Season 10 were also a tad premature. Here's what Bowen had to say when asked if there would be a Season 11.
I think that there is. I've been told that there is, you know? The ink is not dry, but I have very positive feelings about it. And I'm never positive, so if I'm feeling sort of positive, yeah. I don't gleefully go for optimism. But I think this is pretty good.
If Modern Family had minimal chances of getting renewed for Season 11, Julie Bowen likely would have played that response a little closer to the vest. Maybe something along the lines of, "Oh, you know, we're all hoping for the best, but it's out of our hands," and so on. But she gave quite the opposite answer, semi-confirming that a new batch of episodes is on the way next fall. (Presumably.)
It's somewhat surprising that Julie Bowen wasn't more guarded when guesting on E!'s Busy Tonight, knowing just how hard TV fanbases can embrace uncorroborated comments like this. If something would happen in the near future that reversed Modern Family's forward momentum, causing the network to cancel it outright, then Bowen's optimism would sting harder than the bee permanently stuck in Jay's bonnet.
The reason why Julie Bowen can be so positive about Modern Family's future is because ABC recently entered into contract negotiations with the adult members of the show's well-paid ensemble cast. If the reports are correct, then the network and 20th Century Fox TV are lining up Bowen, Ty Burrell, Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet for deals to make Season 11 their final year with the long-running series.
While not a fully confirmed fact, it's reported that Modern Family's eleventh season would initially comprise 18 episodes, with the potential for more to be ordered by ABC if need be. Not much had been said by cast or crew members after that initial report came out, so Julie Bowen may very well have offered the first big sign that the negotiations went swimmingly. For that, may her insides feel like velvet.
It's not like Bowen's Claire Dunphy wouldn't have much to do if Modern Family returned for Season 11. While her and Mitchell's mother (played by Shelley Long) passed away this season, the Pritchett/Dunphy lineage was revealed to be gaining a new recruit, thanks to Haley now being pregnant.
When Busy Phillips asked Julie Bowen how she felt about getting set to play a grandmother on TV, here was the actress' amusing response:
Like there's tumbleweeds in my ovaries. I don't know what to say. All of a sudden, the jokes are about me being old. I'm like, 'Haha -- wait, is that for real? I'm old?'
After ten seasons, Modern Family is getting up there in years itself, but I think fans would be pumped to see these families mixing it up for at least one more season. The hit sitcom will return to ABC to continue Season 10 on Wednesday, January 9, at 9:00 a.m. For all the other big shows hitting primetime when the new year comes around, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
