Four seasons ‘the right lifespan’ for quirky NBC comedy, said Schur

NBC comedy The Good Place will end after its fourth season in 2019-2020. Michael Schur, creator and executive producer, make the announcement at the Television Academy in North Hollywood when he was speaking on a panel.

“After The Good Place was picked up for season two, the writing staff and I began to map out, as best we could, the trajectory of the show,” Schur said. “Given the ideas we wanted to explore, and the pace at which we wanted to present those ideas, I began to feel like four seasons – just over 50 episodes – was the right lifespan. At times over the past few years we’ve been tempted to go beyond four seasons, but mostly because making this show is a rare, creatively fulfilling joy, and at the end of the day, we don’t want to tread water just because the water is so warm and pleasant. As such, the upcoming fourth season will be our last.”

The Good Place stars Ted Danson, Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto and D’Arcy Carden. The critically revered show debuted in 2016.

For the 2018-19 season, The Good Place averaged a 1.6 rating in adults 18-49 and 4.6 million viewers overall in live plus seven day Nielsens.

“Since day one, The Good Place has been a seminal show for us and one that hits all the NBC touch points – incredibly smart, funny, inventive and emotional,” said Lisa Katz and Tracey Pakosta, co-presidents of scripted programming, NBC Entertainment. “We know the audience will love what Mike Schur and his writers have in store for the final season.”

Schur, David Miner, Morgan Sackett and Drew Goddard executive produce.

“I will be forever grateful to NBC and Universal TV for letting us make The Good Place, and for letting us end it on our own schedule,” said Schur. “I will also be forever grateful to the creative team, both on-screen and off, for their hard work and dedication to a very weird idea. We ask the question very frequently, on this show, what do we owe to each other? The answer, for me, is: I owe all of you a whole lot.”

Universal Television, Fremulon and 3 Arts Entertainment produce the show.