15 Shows We Suspect Are (Quietly) Heading Into Their Final Seasons

The CW's Riverdale, PBS' Endeavour, NBC's New Amsterdam and Paramount+'s The Good Fight are among a half-dozen veteran series officially entering their final seasons in the coming months. Unofficially, however, we suspect the departing quartet will have a fair amount of company at the finish line in the coming year.

The fact is, the networks and streamers are often reticent to make preemptive end-date announcements, with execs preferring to err on the side of caution in the event that said show experiences an unexpected creative or viewership resurgence.

Typically, final-season decisions are made while a show is still in production or during what will be end up being its farewell season — and sometimes the formal press release goes out with little notice (see: NCIS: New Orleans' 11th hour plug-pulling last year).

Which brings us to the list below. We consulted our somewhat reliable TVLine crystal ball and it's telling us that the end is very, very nigh for the following 15 shows.

The HBO space comedy's long-delayed-by-COVID second season is expected to bow this fall. A third season, meanwhile, is expected to bow, well, never, seeing as how the entire cast — star Hugh Laurie included — have seen their contractual commitments to the show lapse.

Despite soberingly low ratings and crickets-level buzz, NBC still renewed the James Spader thriller for a 10th season. Our gut is telling us the insanity will end there.

The Roseanne spinoff's primary quartet does not come cheap. And although the sitcom remains a top draw for ABC, continued ratings erosion will likely make an additional season beyond the upcoming fifth cost-prohibitive.

Leading lady Zendaya's skyrocketing career combined with the previous assertion from HBO boss Casey Bloys that the provocative high school drama has a relatively short shelf life because "I don't think you want 30-year-olds playing" teenagers leads us to strongly believe that the just-ordered third season will be the series' last.

UPDATE: The CW announced on Aug. 1 that Season 9 of The Flash will indeed be its last.

The CW's upcoming sale (perhaps to the Nexstar affiliate group) led to last spring's unprecedented #Arrowverse purge at the network. The Flash was spared, but it's hard to imagine a scenario where the show — at least in its current form, with Grant Gustin in the titular role — lives beyond its upcoming ninth season.

With the acclaimed series' central characters rapidly aging into retirement and the number of outer-space destinations decreasing (what's realistically left after Mars?), we gotta think series co-creator Ronald D. Moore is eyeing the just-ordered fourth season as the endgame.

In the wake of the surprise ouster of Disney's longtime top TV exec Peter Rice in June, this morsel emerged, care of The Wall Street Journal: "A senior Disney official cited Mr. Rice's decision to renew two struggling shows on the Disney+ streaming service — The Mighty Ducks and Big Shot—as examples of questionable deal-making. Both shows cost more than $50 million and neither had shown the type of success that merited additional seasons." Translation: Both series — whose Season 2 premiere dates have yet to be announced by Disney+ — are living on borrowed time.

UPDATE: It's official: Season 5 will be the last for A Million Little Things.

The big surprise surrounding the ABC drama's recent renewal wasn't the pickup itself. It was that the announcement made no mention of the not-so-secret fact that Season 5 will be the show's last.

Given the scripted housecleaning underway at TBS/TNT, it remains unclear if the Daniel Radcliffe/Steve Buscemi comedy's recently-shot fourth season will even air let alone if it will be the series' swan song. (But for the record it will be the series swan song.)

The fact that it took Apple TV+ nearly two months to renew one of its most high-profile series for a third season (the polarizing second season ended Nov. 19, the Season 3 pickup arrived on Jan. 10) suggests it was not a slam-dunk to return. That doesn't exactly bode well for the supremely pricey show's longevity. Also, we have to imagine another 10 episodes of ambitious, hour-long television will have Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon running for the exit.

How many more bodies have to turn up at the Arconia before the city burns the cursed co-op to the ground and erects a memorial park? We're guessing it will be as many as it takes to get the acclaimed Hulu caper through both its current second season and forthcoming third. And then — demolition time!

Though there are nine (and counting!) Outlander books in Diana Gabaldon's series of novels, we can easily see the Starz's drama's upcoming, longer-than-usual Season 7 being its final outing. The introduction of characters like Jamie's grown-up son William and Quaker siblings Denzell and Rachel Hunter — all of whom play major roles in Book 7, An Echo in the Bone, and beyond — means all of the significant pieces will be in place for the TV show to jump ahead here and there and wrap the story by hitting Book 9's significant beats.

As with any high school-set series, the end of Sex Education looms as Otis & Co. get closer to graduation. But with Patricia Allison (aka Ola) and Tanya Reynolds (Lily) already exiting ahead of Season 4's creative reset, and Ncuti Gatwa poised to take over as Doctor Who's title character, it's looking increasingly likely that the end is nigh for the Netflix dramedy.

The final-season chatter enveloping AppleTV+'s Emmy darling — which is heading into its third season — has been loud, sustained and well-sourced; series co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis has previously said that he envisioned Ted Lasso as a three-season arc. The lack of any formal end date announcement suggests Apple TV+ is holding out hope Sudeikis will change his mind. And by including Ted Lasso on this list, we're suggesting we believe strongly he's not going to do so.