It’s official: ABC’s flagship comedy series Modern Family will wrap its run after one more season. The Emmy-winning family comedy has been picked up for an eleventh and final season, the network announced at TCA. I hear it will consist of at least 18 episodes and could expand to 22 episodes.

Modern Family’s renewal was all but assured when the original adult cast, stars Ed O’Neill, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara, in December agreed on new deals with producing studio 20th Century Fox TV to return. Since then, the studio also has signed co-creators/executive producers Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd for another season, and also has made new deals with the original kid actors — now all young adults —  Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould and Rico Rodriguez. I hear some of those cast negotiations came down to the wire, with pacts finally closing overnight.
Ten seasons in, Modern Family remains ABC’s top rated comedy (2.1 adults 18-49 rating in Live+3) and second highest rated series on the network only behind Grey’s Anatomy (tied with The Good Doctor, The Bachelor and The Conners).

“Chris and Steve have created one of the most seminal and iconic comedies in television history,” said Karey Burke, president, ABC Entertainment. “In its final season, there will be more milestone events that anyone who has been a fan of the series won’t want to miss.”

She later said that she would love to do a Modern Family spinoff but acknowledged that there are no conversations about one going on. The show’s Season 11 renewal was helped by the fact that its producing studio, 20th TV, will soon be aligned with ABC under the Disney corporate umbrella.

A five-time Emmy winner for Outstanding Comedy Series, Modern Family stars O’Neill as Jay Pritchett, Bowen as Claire Dunphy, Burrell as Phil Dunphy, Vergara as Gloria Pritchett, Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett, Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker, Hyland as Haley Dunphy, Gould as Luke Dunphy, Winter as Alex Dunphy, Rodriguez as Manny Delgado, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett and Jeremy Maguire as Joe Pritchett.

“For 10 years, our characters have bravely faced turning points in life and moved through them to great personal enrichment; we have chosen a different path by doing one more season of Modern Family,” said Lloyd.

Added Levitan, “Even after 10 years together, we realized there are still some things our writers don’t yet know about each other’s sex lives.”

Levitan and Lloyd executive produce with Jeff Morton, Danny Zuker, Paul Corrigan, Brad Walsh, Abraham Higginbotham, Jeffrey Richman, Elaine Ko, Bill Wrubel, Vali Chandrasekaran, Stephen Lloyd, Jack Burditt and Jon Pollak for 20th TV in association with Steven Levitan Productions and Picador Productions,