Scandal Will Reportedly End After 7th Season

Scandal Will Reportedly End After 7th Season

Early reports claim ABC Series, “Scandal” is set to make the 7th season its final one.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that the network is expected to announce at next week’s upfront presentation that the Shonda Rhimes drama starring Kerry Washington will end with its previously announced seventh season. ABC, producers ABC Studios and Shondaland declined comment.

Rhimes has been vocal about the show’s uncertain future in the country’s current political climate. Rhimes told The Hollywood Reporter during an interview for its 100th episode:

I used to know how it ended, and then Donald Trump was elected. We had a destination, and I don’t know if that’s our destination anymore.

In its sixth season, the ABC Studios drama is averaging a 2.7 among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic and 8.9 million total viewers with seven days of delayed viewing. That ranks the Washington, D.C.-set series as broadcast TV’s sixth among adults under 50 and 11th among total viewers — behind Rhimes’ “Grey’s Anatomy” and “How to Get Away With Murder“.

This season, writers had to scrap a planned story-line that featured Russians hacking the presidential election when reality struck too close to home for ABC’s political thriller. A new president to replace Tony Goldwyn’s Fitzgerald Grant is expected to be revealed before the show wraps its season.

Sources note that Rhimes always saw “Scandal” as a seven-season show. The prolific producer told THR ahead of season four that her fast-paced game-changing series — inspired by the life of fixer Judy Smith (who serves as a co-EP) wasn’t a “10-season or eight-season show:

…. I’ve already decided when Scandal is ending. I think there’s only so much Scandal you can tell satisfactorily. The Fitz-Liv thing can only be told so long and in such a way. … I’ve already decided how long that is and what that’s going to be.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter