Young Sheldon creators and cast recall decision to end the show after the 2023 strikes

Left · 1The Hollywood Reporter published an exclusive excerpt from Jessica Radloff's book 'Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw's-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy', which is due out on 20 October from Grand Central Publishing. 1 Left · 1The CBS comedy premiered in 2017 and ended in 2024 after seven seasons; the Hollywood Reporter says the pandemic and the joint writers' and actors' strikes of 2023 made it apparent to the creative team that the story was heading toward an end. 1 Left · 1According to the Hollywood Reporter, the cast members were invited to a mandatory Zoom meeting with Chuck Lorre, Steve Molaro and Steve Holland four days after the actors' strike ended, and learned the show's fate there. 1

Left · 1The excerpt describes the situation in spring 2023: the show had one year left on a three-season renewal that began in 2021, continuing would have meant new cast contracts, budgets were shrinking, and Iain Armitage and Raegan Revord were getting older. 1 Left · 1The Writers Guild of America went on strike on 2 May 2023 and the Screen Actors Guild followed on 14 July 2023; the writers' strike ended on 27 September 2023 after 148 days while the actors remained on strike. 1 Left · 1Holland said the planned 22 episodes for season seven shrank to 18, then 16, as the actors' strike dragged on. 1

Left · 1Molaro said he did not want to make the show without George, the father character who dies in season seven, and with Sheldon away at Caltech. He said a season eight was possible and that he would have stepped back and possibly consulted. Holland said he agreed with Molaro but was more open to seeing what a season eight would look like. 1 Left · 1Holland described the show's emotional through line as an older Sheldon looking back on his relationship with his father, and said that felt like the end of the story. 1 Left · 1Cast accounts of expectations differ. Iain Armitage said he expected about six or seven years, while Raegan Revord said she thought there were another couple of years and found the news shocking after business affairs had approached them about negotiating a pickup. 1

Left · 1Lee Armitage said he thought Raegan felt they had been promised the show would continue, a conversation Iain never had. Lance Barber said he had heard secondhand that producers wanted to see Missy graduate high school. Revord and Holland both said that conversations about the show continuing after George's death took place, but Raegan Revord said she was never told it was happening. 1 Centre · 1Screen Rant framed these differing recollections as a cast rift created by confusion over when the series would end, citing Radloff's Instagram post saying 'a lot of tears and anger' came out during this part of the interviews. 2 Centre · 1Screen Rant's own commentary says CBS would likely have kept the show on air given its success, argues that both Armitage's and Revord's views make sense, and wonders whether a rebrand like ABC's The Conners was considered. It notes CBS now has the replacement series Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage. 2