‘The Big Bang Theory’ to End With Twelfth Season

You know what they say, all mediocre things must come to an end, and that includes television’s number one rated show, The Big Bang Theory, with the news that the upcoming season 12 will be the last. This makes it the longest-running multi-cam sitcom in history, but it won’t hit 300 episodes.

This is rough news for fans of the show, but it’ll be ever harder on people who have built their identity around talking about how much they don’t like it and making the same joke about how the laugh track is intrusive for the millionth time. Young Sheldon will still be on and it’s legitimately terrible, but being a single camera show with no laugh track means they’ll have to come up with some new material.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that the show is ending because Jim Parsons decided not to return, and that the rest of the cast was ready to sign on. Parsons plays series villain Sheldon Cooper, and along with Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco, was an integral part of the show. If anyone else had wanted to leave, then they would have written them out of the show. This almost happened a few years ago when Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg tried to hold out for a higher salary; they took the studio’s final offer when they found out Chuck Lorre was writing a script without their characters.

Kaley Cuoco was the first cast member to react, posting on Instagram that she was “drowning in tears.”

Look how good everyone aside from Jim Parsons looks when they’re not made up for the show. That’s what you call “TV ugly,” which is still way better looking than anyone not on TV.