It’s the end of an era! ABC has announced that they have renewed Modern Family for an 11th & final season.
The renewal comes with fresh new deals for the adult stars (Ed O’Neil, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson) that are said to be quite lucrative. The decision to bring back the Steve Levitan- and Christopher Lloyd-created single-camera comedy also comes as the series is poised to become owned in-house as studio 20th Century Fox Television is included in the assets moving to Disney as part of Fox’s $72 billion sale. The renewal also hinged on the studio signing new pacts with young stars Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould and Rico Rodriguez which was also done without incident.
An episode count for the final season, meanwhile, has yet to be determined though Levitan has indicated it’s unlikely to be for a full order of 20 or more. I’m guessing the episode order will be revealed in May at the Upfronts.
Modern Family has been a major hit for 20th TV, having tied a TV record in winning five straight best comedy series Emmys. The series is currently ABC’s longest-running comedy. (Grey’s Anatomy is its oldest drama at 15 seasons and is expected to return for its 16th.) In its 10th season, Modern Family remains a top five comedy on broadcast (it’s ranked fourth) and regularly wins its Wednesdays at 9 PM slot among the all-important adults 18-49 demo. The series also counts a Golden Globe win, four SAG Awards for best comedy, a Peabody, six WGA and four PGA awards, among others for its stars.
