‘The Good Place’ to meet its fate after upcoming season, says showrunner

“The Good Place” will find out soon about the afterlife.

The highly regarded NBC sitcom will end after next season, its fourth, showrunner Michael Schur announced Friday at a For Your Consideration event at the TV Academy’s Saban Theatre in North Hollywood and on social media.

Though the show’s live ratings were solid, they were never near the top. However, NBC recently said that, after counting all platforms, it is the network’s most-watched program. Reports have its weekly viewership around 10 million, all told.

The complexly plotted, frequently punning and often philosophical comedy has also been a hit with critics (97% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, dozens of Top-10 lists) and awards-giving bodies (including two Critics’ Choice Awards, an AFI and a Peabody among its laurels).

Schur said that after the series was picked up for its second season (following the jaw-dropping twist at the end of Season 1), the team plotted out its arc and he came to believe it should end at just over 50 episodes, or “Chapters,” in the show’s parlance.

Schur’s statement, tweeted out by the show’s official account, read in part, “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.”

As fans expressed dismay across social media platforms, the creative team wistfully acknowledged the news.

Writer-producer Megan Amram tweeted, “Writing for #TheGoodPlace has been the most fulfilling professional experience I’ve ever had INCLUDING the summer I worked at Nordstrom in Oregon. Thank you for watching and I hope you like season 4.”

Star Jameela Jamil’s tweet referenced the inability to curse in the show’s concept of a kind of heaven: “YOU HEARD CORRECT, This next season is the FINAL season of #nbcthegoodplace because Mike Schur is the classiest motherforkingshirtball ever and wanted to leave you at the right time in the right way. We love you and we hope you love our goodbye.#teamcockroach4ever”

Schur’s statement ended with, “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.

“We look forward to a great final season airing this fall.”