Netflix's Orange Is the New Black to End in 2019

One of Netflix’s longest-running original shows will come to an end in 2019, the streamer has revealed. Orange Is the New Black’s core cast appeared in a new video Wednesday to announce that the show’s forthcoming seventh season will be its last.

With its seventh and final installment, the women’s prison-set ensemble dramedy from creator Jenji Kohan—adapted from Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir of the same name—will play out the three-season renewal Netflix gave it back in February 2016, well ahead of its season four premiere. Season six debuted in late July, shifting the show’s focus from Litchfield Penitentiary to a maximum-security prison after a deadly riot sparked during the season five finale.

Many would argue OITNB’s impending end is good news. The four-time Emmy-winning series, once one of TV’s most acclaimed, began to lose its way during its fifth season, which ended on a polarizing note. Paste TV Editor Matt Brennan declared the show “its own worst enemy” in August, unpacking its “amiable, if at times exasperating, messiness” at length. As they say, it’s better to burn out than fade away, and at its peak, OITNB burned awfully bright indeed.

Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black to End in 2019