Black-ish, Kenya Barris’s award-winning ABC comedy, will end after its upcoming eighth season. The final run, which will feature a guest spot from former First Lady Michelle Obama, premieres on January 4, 2022. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show’s creative team and cast lobbied for an additional six episodes of the comedy on the Disney-owned ABC. “In this day and age it is rare to get to decide when your show should come to an end, and we are grateful along with ABC to be able to make this final season exactly what we’d hoped for — and to do it with the entire and AMAZINGLY STELLAR cast coming back to close this chapter out with us the right way!†Barris wrote, along with a video announcing the news. “This show has changed my life in so many ways and I am so proud of the conversations we’ve started along the way. None of this would have been possible without our audience and supporters, who have championed the show every step of the journey; allowing us to change not just the narrative of Black Families, but of Family, Culture, and the World in general. All the while allowing us to talk about things that people were not supposed to talk about, period, and especially on a network television comedy.â€
The Emmy-nominated comedy, which has its season-seven finale on May 18, has earned a Peabody for its depiction of an upper-class Black family. “We are humbled to have been the home of Black-ish, a show that has given voice to the Black experience through humor and heart,†reads a statement on the show’s official Twitter. “We look forward to celebrating the series and its cultural impact with the upcoming season 7 finale, and its eighth and final season.†It generated two spinoffs, Grown-ish on Freeform and prequel Mixed-ish. Plus, a third spinoff, Old-ish, is currently in development. All the shows are produced by ABC Signature, where Tracee Ellis Ross recently signed an overall deal of her own. “When we launched, I didn’t know that our show was going to have the impact that we had,†Ross says in the farewell-announcement video. One final, conversation-starting season is on its way.
This post has been updated with additional information.