ABC’s Black-ish will be coming to a close after Season 8.
The news arrived via Kenya Barris’ Instagram account on Friday. The show’s creator and executive producer wrote, “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.”
He continued, “This show has changed my life in so many ways and I am so proud of the conversations we’ve started along the way.” He thanked the show’s supporters, fans, and audience for allowing the show space to change “the narrative of Black families” and “allowing us to talk about things that people were not supposed to talk about period… especially on a network television comedy.”
Deadline reports that there had been buzz about the show ending, particularly following its seventh season’s quiet ratings, which will have its finale on May 18. The current season addressed a myriad of newsworthy events, including the pandemic, racism, and the nationwide protests fighting social injustices.
The comedy series also led to two spinoffs: Grown-ish, which sees Yara Shahidi’s character go off to college, and the Black-ish prequel Mixed-ish, which shows a young Rainbow living in the 1980s with her biracial family. Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, Marsai Martin, Laurence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis, Peter Mackenzie, Deon Cole, and Jeff Meacham.
