Which shows are ending in 2023?

(Image credit: Macall Polay/HBO)

published 20 March 2023

Prepare to bid farewell to some of your TV favorites. A surprising number of major shows are set to air their final seasons in 2023, including several just within the next few months and two from HBO alone. Here are all the biggest series taking a bow before the end of the year:

Succession

After five years, Succession is resigning from HBO. The Emmy-winning drama series will end with its fourth season that begins on March 26, as creator Jesse Armstrong confirmed ahead of the premiere. The somewhat last-minute announcement took some fans by surprise, but Armstrong told The New Yorker, "There's a promise in the title of Succession. I've never thought this could go on forever. The end has always been kind of present in my mind." This means the 2023 Emmys will mark the show's send-off — and some other dramas might actually have a chance of winning in 2024.

Succession isn't the only award-winning HBO series with its ending in sight. Bill Hader confirmed his dark comedy Barry, in which he plays a hitman, is ending with season 4. "It's been an amazing journey making this show, and it's bittersweet that the story has come to its natural conclusion," he said. The series premiered in 2018, and Hader won two consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance. Barry's last season premieres on April 16.

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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is going out with a tight five … seasons. Amazon Prime Video's comedy that follows the life of a stand-up comedian in the 1960s will end with its fifth season, which premieres on April 14. The season was confirmed as the show's last more than a year in advance, so it will have a proper ending, and executive producer Daniel Palladino told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019, "We have an idea emotionally where we want the Midge character to end."

As one Flash lives, another dies. With the DC movie The Flash set to premiere over the summer, The CW's The Flash series is ending with its current ninth season, which premiered in February. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show's eighth season was originally expected to be its last before a ninth season renewal. Star Grant Gustin called the news "bittersweet" and said the show will be finishing "on our terms." The news comes as The CW reduces its number of scripted shows. The Flash's departure will also mark the end of the so-called "Arrowverse," The CW's universe of DC shows that began with Arrow.

The Flash isn't the only CW show bidding farewell. Riverdale, the popular drama based on the Archie Comics, is ending with its upcoming seventh season, which will run from March through August 2023. CW CEO Mark Pedowitz said in May 2022 that he's a "big believer in attempting to give series that have had long runs an appropriate sendoff," per TV Line. He added that the show's executive producers "felt that seven years is the right amount."

ABC's popular sitcom The Goldbergs will end with its tenth season after being on the air since 2013. "With ABC now having a hit in Quinta Brunson's Abbott Elementary, the network no longer has a need for The Goldbergs as Disney looks to lower costs on broadcast and pivot to more optimistic originals in line with its newly minted awards juggernaut," The Hollywood Reporter said. The decision came after one of the stars, Jeff Garlin, departed the series after HR investigations into his on-set behavior, which left the show struggling to keep the character around using stand-ins before eventually killing him off.

Netflix's wildly popular royal family drama is set to abdicate the throne. The Crown will end with its upcoming sixth season, which, among other things, is expected to depict the death of Princess Diana. It isn't clear what events the series will take viewers up to, though showrunner Peter Morgan has said it won't get into the modern day, e.g. by depicting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal exit. "Meghan and Harry are in the middle of their journey, and I don't know what their journey is or how it will end," he told The Hollywood Reporter, adding that he's "much more comfortable writing about things that happened at least 20 years ago." Netflix hasn't announced a premiere date for the final season, though The Crown has generally aired two seasons in back-to-back years, suggesting season 6 could debut in November 2023.

The Walking Dead walked into the sunset with a series finale in 2022, and now, so will its spinoff. Fear the Walking Dead will end with its eighth season, which premieres in May 2023. "We've been on the air for eight seasons, and we felt like it was a really fun run," star Danay García said, per CBR. "Nothing really happened to Fear. It's just that we've been on the air for quite some time, and it's the time [for it to end]." Then again, this is a zombie show, so AMC may have to shoot it in the head to make sure it doesn't come back.

After an epic run of more than 300 episodes, CBS' NCIS spinoff NCIS Los Angeles will conclude with its 14th season. The show has been on the air since 2009. Deadline reported that the "cancellation news came as a surprise to many associated with the show," though it "should not come as a shock given the big price tag involved, especially at a time when networks across the board are looking to cut their spending." But star LL Cool J said on Instagram "this is the perfect time to end @ncisla on top of our game!!!" The series finale will air in May.

Star Trek: Picard, the Paramount+ series that brings back Patrick Stewart for a follow-up to Star Trek: The Next Generation, is ending after a surprisingly short run of just three seasons. The final season, which is currently airing, reunites Stewart with many of his Next Generation co-stars, including LeVar Burton. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman said in January 2023 that the team "talked about really wanting it to just be three years" from the start, "feeling like we could really tell a complete story with the season you're now seeing as our endpoint." Despite this, he and Stewart both floated the possibility of more, with the actor saying, "There are doors left open."

Apple's hugely popular soccer comedy Ted Lasso returned for its third season on March 15, though fans still don't know for sure if it's the last. Jason Sudeikis and his fellow producers have said they originally plotted out a three-season arc and that this season will conclude that story, though they have not said whether the show will continue into a fourth season that begins a new arc. "I can't give you a definitive answer of if it were to come back and not set myself up to being called a liar," Sudeikis told Entertainment Weekly, adding, "It's definitively the last season of this story, that I can say."

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.