Popular television series The Big Bang Theory will end in 2019, Entertainment Weekly reported. The twelfth and final season will be aired on September 24 on American television network CBS and is likely to end next May. The decision to conclude The Big Bang Theory was taken after actor Jim Parsons decided to leave the show.
The Big Bang Theory producers Warner Bros Television, CBS and Chuck Lorre Productions said in a joint statement: “We are forever grateful to our fans for their support of The Big Bang Theory during the past 12 seasons. We, along with the cast, writers and crew, are extremely appreciative of the show’s success and aim to deliver a final season, and series finale, that will bring The Big Bang Theory to an epic creative close.”
The sitcom centres on a group of five people living in California: physicists and roommates Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), their neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco), and their colleagues Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). Since its debut in 2007, the show has received 52 Emmy nominations and 10 wins.
According to the Entertainment Weekly report, the last season of The Big Bang Theory averaged 18.6 million viewers, which was more than any other series. A spin-off prequel, Young Sheldon, which follows the character Sheldon Cooper at the age of nine, was released last year.