Black-ish Eight And Final Season Has Been Renewed At ABC

The beloved American sitcom Black-ish which has thrilled fans with its light and comedic side and important topics of racism, police brutality, and slavery in America are getting an eight-season, which is also slated to be its final season run. It has produced the spin-offs Grown-ish, Mixed-ish, and Old-ish, which in their own way has continued to present serious topics like female empowerment, racism, educational imbalance, and others.

The show premiered on ABC on 24th September 2014 and has over 150 episodes to date. It is focused on the Johnson family and their interaction with their neighbors. It opened to a wide audience and led to the first spin-off Grown-ish, which focuses on the life of one of its main characters Zooey Johnson as she finds her way through college life and navigates friendships and relationships.

Black-ish Creators Announce Season Finale

The series creator Kenya Barris announced the news on Instagram Friday, a few days prior to Tuesday’s season 7 finale.

“To ALL the people in the world I love, honor, respect and care for it is both exciting and bittersweet to share that black-ish has been RENEWED by ABC for its [sic] EIGHTH… and FINAL SEASON,” Barris, 46, 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—– and to do it with the entire and AMAZINGLY STELLAR cast coming back to close this chapter out with us the right way!”

Black-ish stars Tracee Ellis Ross, Anthony Andersen, Marsai Martin, Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, Jenifer Lewis, and Laurence Fishburne and first premiered on the ABC network in 2014.

The show has been nominated for 20 Emmy Awards, winning just one, with its creator Barris winning two NAACP Awards for outstanding writing in a comedy series two years in a row, in both 2016 and 2017.

Black-Ish Cast Reflects On The Series Legacy

In his announcement post, Barris shared a video of a few of the cast members reflecting on the show’s legacy.

“When we launched, I didn’t know that our show was going to have the impact that it had,” Ross recalls.
“The thing that makes the Black-ish brand of comedy so universal is its family, it’s always a little messy,” Fishburne, 59, adds.

“Whoever’s watching this, thank you all for being interested in the stories that we wanted to tell. I’m looking forward to how we’re going to wrap up this series,” Andersen, 50, who plays the character of Dre Johnson in the series, says.

“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,” Barris shared as the post’s caption.

“All the while allowing us to talk about things that people were not supposed to talk about period… especially on a network television comedy,” he continued.

“Thank you to everyone who made it possible to get to this point! The cast, crew, writers, directors, executives, and especially my family, who allowed me to mine so many deeply personal moments from them (many times forgetting to give them the heads up) and show them to the world,” he wrote. “Tears fill my eyes and a smile brightens my face as I say thank you to ALL of my blackish family for all you have given of yourselves.”

Black-ish airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.