Black-ish is officially coming to an end on ABC. On Friday, it was announced by creator Kenya Barris that ABC had ordered an eighth and final season of the award-winning comedy series. In a heartfelt message posted to Instagram, Barris says that the series hasn't been canceled by the network as the Black-Ish team gets to end the series on their own terms. The creator also looks forward to ending the show properly after the pandemic affected production on season 7.

"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!" Kenya Barris wrote in the caption of the Instagram post.

"This show has changed my life in so many ways and I am so proud of the conversations we've started along the way," Barris adds. "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 and the World in general. All the while allowing us to talk about things that people were not supposed to talk about period and especially on a network television comedy."

Barris also thanked everyone involved with Black-ish by stating: "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. 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."

This makes Black-ish one of three popular long-running shows to come to an end during the 2021-22 broadcast season. It was recently reported that This Is Us will also be coming to an end along with Brooklyn Nine-Nine on NBC. Other shows at ABC are currently on the bubble, and the network is expected to make more renewal or cancelation decisions on other titles throughout the day.

Fortunately, the franchise will continue to live on through its multiple spinoffs. Premiering on Freeform in 2017, the first spinoff series, Grown-ish, is set to premiere its fourth season in July. Meanwhile, the spinoff Mixed-ish also premiered on ABC in 2019 and has found success as well, and it's currently in the midst of its second season. That's not all, as yet another spinoff called Old-ish starring Laurence Fishburne and Jenifer Lewis is also in development with Barris attached.

The success of Black-ish cannot be denied, and its six-season run that spawned multiple spinoffs is something to be very proud of. The final season of Black-ish will premiere this fall. This news comes to us from Kenya Barris on Instagram.