Back in March, New Girl star Jake Johnson suggested during an interview at SXSW that the sixth season would be its last. “Fox won’t tell us [whether the show will be renewed] but we shot a finale where, if this was the end, the core fan base would be OK.” He would later walk back that statement, and suggested that there was a 50/50 shot at renewal.
https://twitter.com/MrJakeJohnson/status/841056556380770304
Ratings an interest in the long-running Fox sitcom have wavered really since the third season, after showrunner Liz Meriweather put Nick and Jess together before pulling them apart again. It’s not been the same since — even with the arrival and departure of Damon Wayans, Jr., and and a long arc for Megan Fox, who filled in for Zooey Dechanel while she was on maternity leave. Apparently, however, there’s enough left in the tank for a seventh and final season of New Girl.
There’s no word yet on how many episodes the final season will receive (there were rumors that it would be a shortened final season), but the regular cast members will all return. Nasim Pedrad — who has a recurring role on the series — may find difficulty working a final season into her schedule now that she’s a regular on TBS’s People of Earth.
Ratings have been declining for years on New Girl, but it does do well for Hulu. Fox, which cancelled Son of Zorn and Making History, as well as Sleepy Hollow, Rosewood and Pitch, has several holes to fill in is fall schedule, and having New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (which was renewed for a fifth season) at least gives the network some consistency as it looks to rebuild next season.
