Of all the major shows ending or getting canceled in 2024, The Conners is one of a relatively limited minority whose fate wasn’t necessarily solidified by low ratings, behind-the-scenes controversies, schedule snafus or any other contentious reasonings. In the case of the Lanford family, ABC confirmed Season 7 will be their last one without any noteworthy catalysts beyond the growing idea that it was just time to hang it up. Which is apparently the way to end a series if you want the Showrunner & Co. to come away feeling okay with having to say goodbye.
For years now, The Conners has more or less existed on the edge of the cancellation bubble, where contracts were set up so that new agreements needed to be made after each new season, as opposed to multi-year deals. The show’s viewership numbers and ongoing legacy always helped fuel the impetus to bring it back for another year, but it sounds like all involved were ready to pack it in once The Conners’ hit its milestone 100th episode.
Showrunner Bruce Helford and executive producer Dave Caplan spoke with TheWrap about the way Season 6’s finale left the breadcrumbs for what’s to come, and why ending the show with a six-episode final season isn’t a downer as some might imagine. According to Helford:
We didn’t ever imagine we’d go 100 episodes, but it’s such an incredible cast and we gelled as a writing staff, cast and crew. Every year we had to agree to come back, all of us the cast and everything else. And every year it was like 'we’re still having fun' and the quality is still there, this is worthy. But there comes a point at which things must end. We feel the time has come, we’ve hit a lot of highs…. We want to go on a high note.
While it's hard to make a lot of direct comparisons between The Conners and Seinfeld that make organic sense, this is certainly an area where the two series dovetail a bit. Jerry Seinfeld chose to pull away from continuing that show's run at NBC when it was already considered one of the best sitcoms of all time, and was bringing in 30 million viewers each week.
TV ratings are obviously far lower than they were 25 years ago, but the same principle still holds here, which Dave Caplan also addressed, saying:
How often on TV do you get a chance to walk away while you’re still strong. We’re still the most watched show on the network, so to go out on top is pretty appealing.
While the last batch of Season 6 episodes took a viewer dip due to schedule changes caused by Jeopardy! Masters, The Conners does still manage to bring in more primetime eyeballs overall, on average, than even Grey's Anatomy. And reruns airing on The CW have likely helped boost its popularity in the last year or so, not to mention the sitcom's first five seasons being available to stream with a Netflix subscription.
And while pushing the final season's debut to the midseason might also affect how many people tune in, it sounds like ABC will be promoting the six-episode stretch quite a bit.
How The Conners' Final Season Will Be "A Big Event"
Rather than ABC sweeping The Conners’ swan song season under the rug with little fanfare, it sounds like the upcoming episodes will be treated as something akin to event television, albeit the sitcom variety. The two executive producers explained how it’ll be big for fans, as well as for the network’s own promotional purposes.
- Dave Caplan: These last six episodes are a very big event for ABC. I think they want to use it to also launch some other shows. A lot of people are going to be interested in seeing the saga of the Conners wind down to its end for now.
- Bruce Helford: We’re also happy to have a little extra time to put this all together and not have to rush it into the fall schedule. That’s a benefit for us to do this properly, because it’s going to take some time… We’ll be back in July writing and probably won’t be shooting until August.
It was obviously implied that starting later in the season would give the creative team an advantage, but knowing that ABC wants to go big here makes that extra time all the more lucrative. This is a show that pulls off some of broadcast TV's best guest stars, and there are plenty of Roseanne characters we haven't seen return yet, with Martin Mull's Leon being a hopeful. (Also gotta love Caplan saying "to its end for now," leaving that front door open for more.)
As far as what fans can expect to see from the not-so-lucky family, Bruce Helford didn't share any details, but did imply this won't necessarily be a victory lap for all involved. As he put it:
And as always, we’re not afraid of people having success and we’re not afraid of people having failure… We’ve always tried to make the show as realistic as possible. A lot of comedies are fun and that’s great, there’s a place for that. But this show has always been about the bond we’ve had with the audience, and that we will present these things in an honest way… So anything can happen, and will, in the last six episodes.
Considering the way Roseanne's final season went, The Conners could quite literally set off a bomb in every scene and still not quite mess things up the way the lottery storyline did. But since we already talked about Seinfeld earlier, what if Helford and Caplan took a page out of Curb Your Enthusiasm's book by using the Season 7 finale to poke fun at the way Roseanne's original run wrapped? Now I'm a little too excited by this idea that won't happen.
The Conners will be back for the final seventh season stretch in 2025, but fans can watch the sixth season with a Hulu subscription, and head to our 2024 TV premiere schedule to see what other new and returning shows are popping up soon.
