The overall importance of New Girl on Fox's lineup cannot be overstated. Debuting on the heels of Zoey Deschanel's fan-favorite performance in 500 Days of Summer, the series has gone on to become one of the most successful successors to the Friends sitcom model. However, the show recently wrapped up Season 6, with many wondering whether or not it would return next fall. On that note, we can now confirm that New Girl will live to fight another day as it has been renewed for Season 7, but there is unfortunately a clear finish line in sight.
Fox has officially renewed New Girl for its seventh season, and it has been confirmed to be the final run, according to THR. The show has maintained consistently impressive ratings throughout its run, but the ratings for the last season of the series cast doubts on the comedy going on much longer. In fact, the Season 6 finale was left intentionally vague with its character wrap-ups so that it could serve as a de facto series finale if necessary. However, now that Fox announced the series will conclude at the end of the 2017-2018 season, the folks behind New Girl can effectively bring down the curtains in a way that will actually satisfy longtime fans.
Bringing New Girl to an end is probably in the best interest of everyone involved with the show. Series creator Liz Meriwether is currently in the process of developing a new sitcom for Fox (titled Thin Ice), and the rest of the cast has started to branch out into other high profile projects. For example, Jake Johnson has made a seamless jump to big screen projects like Jurassic World in recent years, and Max Greenfield has plenty of irons in the fire, such as his recently announced role on the third season of American Crime Story. New Girl may be coming to an end, but we are going to see these actors in plenty of other projects for years to come.
We are obviously sad to learn that New Girl will finish relatively soon, but seven seasons is nothing to scoff at in the long run, and at least we have our answer now. After all, Jessica Day moved into that loft seven years ago, so there's nothing "new" about that girl anymore. Between revealing Schmidt's first name during Season 6, and milking the Jess/Nick romance for as long as possible, we would guess that one more season is exactly the amount of gas that the series has left in its tank -- regardless of how much fans still love the show. With a definite ending on the horizon, the series can pull out all of the stops and finish the series in proper fashion. Expect a return from Damon Wayans Jr.'s Coach, because obviously.
New Girl will return for its final run of episodes this fall. If you are on the lookout for more information related to this summer's most highly anticipated small screen debuts, make sure to take a look at our summer TV premiere guide.
