The Big Bang Theory has had a banner year, managing to nab headlines in its ninth season by having Sheldon and Amy hook up and continuing to be a ratings juggernaut, but it seems that the show might wind down soon. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the CBS series’s showrunner Steve Molaro revealed that the show could end after the next season. “The reality is that maybe season 10 is the ending point,†he said. “The real answer is I don’t know and all I can do right now is go episode to episode and try to make each one the best that we can.†The stars of the series are currently under a very lucrative (read: $1 million per episode) deal that covers their eighth, ninth, and tenth seasons on the show, while The Big Bang Theory itself is renewed through the 2016–2017 season. Any further continuation would mean that CBS would have to renegotiate, and likely offer an even better deal to the stars.
Still, series creator Chuck Lorre seems more hopeful. “I never imagined nine [seasons] and here we are,†he said. “I’m not going to presume to know how many years this has because it’s ridiculous for me to guess. It’s already gone beyond my wildest dreams so anything beyond this … as long as everybody is having a good time and we’re making a show we’re proud of … then it’s worth continuing.†Maybe, in a radical, Boyhood-like take on the television sitcom, The Big Bang Theory will simply continue indefinitely, as Sheldon and Leonard progress into the joys and disappointments of middle age, onto retirement, and finally to mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans laugh track, sans everything.