Is This the End of the Line for 'Veep'?

HBO's Veep has been a consistent darling of critics since it debuted six seasons ago, but those critics are going to have to learn to live without it very soon. The show's creators and its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, admitted this week that the series' upcoming seventh season will be its last. That could be bad news for HBO, whose top series, Game of Thrones, could be on hiatus until 2019 and whose most recent hits Westworld and Big Little Lies aren't airing new episodes any time soon, either.

Via The Hollywood Reporter.

Veep, HBO's acclaimed comedy, Emmy powerhouse and arguably the funniest comedy on television, will end its run with a final seventh season in 2018.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus just called to tell me the news, and I just told her she's killing me. But it's clear that she and fellow executive producer David Mandel thought long and hard about when it would be right to say goodbye — next season? One after that? — and they've let the story dictate a finale they could feel good about.

"It became clear that this season should be the last season," Louis-Dreyfus says. "We don't want to repeat ourselves or wear out our welcome. The story has a finality to it that feels end-of-series."

It wasn't a decision that came easily. "Let's face it, this has been a role of a lifetime," says Louis-Dreyfus, who knows something about good roles, having played Elaine Benes for nine seasons on Seinfeld. She has won a staggering five consecutive Emmys for outstanding lead actress for Veep and is up for a sixth this year. The show has been nominated for best series six consecutive seasons, winning the last two in a row, as it heads into this year's ceremony on Sept. 17.

Separately, both Louis-Dreyfus and Mandel say that as they mapped out the arc of the seventh season, not repeating themselves and staying true to the often daring twists of the story were paramount. "It was just a very natural thing," Mandel says. "We don't want to repeat ourselves or be boring. It's bittersweet but it's right."

Mandel says all the major players on the show and HBO have kept in the back of their collective minds the notion of when and how to end it. But the series has continued to surprise. Created by Armando Iannucci, Veep started as a show about a presidential hopeful who takes the vice president position when offered. It grew to become about her winning the presidency, losing it, wandering in a post-presidential world (last season) and then deciding whether it's a good idea or not to run for president again (as season six wrapped). The show, Mandel notes, was never held back by its title. It was always driven by the story and a fearless sense of going forward. Mandel took over running the show in season five and has, in the last two years, amplified and expanded its greatness, something Louis-Dreyfus is quick to note: "I'm very proud of that fact. Dave hit it out of the park."

Casey Bloys, programming president for HBO, says the channel is behind whatever Louis-Dreyfus, Mandel and the producers want to do but that, coming from the comedy development side before running all of programming, he is also feeling bittersweet: "I developed the show and I love everybody in the cast."

Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.

Are you sad that Veep is coming to an end, or do you think it deserves to be put to rest after a disappointing sixth season? Let us know in the comment section below.