After 14 soapy seasons, Degrassi has been canceled
After 14 long years, Canada's most enduring TV export — with the possible exception of Alex Trebek — is finally hanging up its hat. On Thursday, TeenNick announced that the teen soap Degrassi, which follows a large group of teenagers as they navigate life at a Toronto high school, will air its series finale in July.
Degrassi is actually the fourth series in the sprawling Degrassi-verse, which began with 1979's The Kids of Degrassi Street and continued with Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High. (Think Marvel, but with fewer superheroes and more angsty teens.) The series became famed for its willingness to grapple with a wide variety of issues faced by teenagers — including depression, bullying, drugs, teen pregnancy, and PTSD — and also for that time when Drake got shot and ended up in a wheelchair.
The current version of Degrassi managed to extend its lifespan far past a normal TV show by swapping in new characters every time an actor departed the series, and in theory, it could probably have gone on forever. But at 14 years, Degrassi had nearly reached the age of its many teen protagonists — and hey, everyone needs to graduate sometime.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
-
How climate change is affecting Christmas traditionsThe Explainer There may be a slim chance of future white Christmases
-
The MAGA civil war takes center stage at the Turning Point USA conferenceIN THE SPOTLIGHT ‘Americafest 2025’ was a who’s who of right-wing heavyweights eager to settle scores and lay claim to the future of MAGA
-
The 8 best drama movies of 2025the week recommends Nuclear war, dictatorship and the summer of 2020 highlight the most important and memorable films of 2025
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
