Will There Be a ‘Season 8’ of Scandal?

Scandal, Scandal Finale, Season 8 Scandal

ABC SCANDAL - ABC's "Scandal" stars Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope. (ABC/Bob D'Amico)

Will there be another season of Scandal? Will Olivia Pope and our favorite Gladiators return for another season?

Unfortunately, tonight’s season finale is the also the series finale, meaning everyone should prepare to say goodbye to Olivia Pope and the Associates.

News that the show would end after seven seasons first surfaced in May of last year. The good news, in the words of TV Series Finale, is that Shonda Rhimes has been thinking up an ending to Scandal for quite some time now, so we should expect to be both shocked and satisfied as things are wrapped up tonight.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter recently, Rhimes dished about the ending: “We basically did what I had planned to be all of season seven in the finale of last season’s Scandal, so [Thursday’s series finale] is very different. We’ve been talking about a political world that I hope no longer exists — or that I hope begins to cease to exist at some point… We’ve been telling a story this entire season and heading toward an end. And the finale is really about finishing telling the story.”

Last week, Scandal scored a .90 in the 18-49 demographic, with 4.153 million viewers. The season average going into tonight's finale is a 1.13 in the 18-49 demographic with 4.801 million viewers.

And how has it fared compared to other shows? This year, Roseanne was the top ABC show, pulling a 4.23 in the 18-49 demographic and 15.862 million viewers. The second top-rated ABC show has been Grey’s Anatomy, with a 1.78 in the 18-49 demographic, and 7.708 million viewers. Scandal comes in tenth place, raking in a 1.13 in the 18-49 demographic and 4.801 million viewers.

Speaking recently on Good Morning America, Kerry Washington was asked what the last day on set was like. Washington said, “The very last scene– I won’t say who’s in it– but the very last scene that we shot had four actors in it, but the entire cast came. It was 3 in the morning, the whole cast came, my parents were there… we got to end the show as a family.”

Asked how the show has changed her, Washington dished, “I’ve learned a lot from Olivia. I feel like she’s such a courageous… she’s very bold and confident. She feels like there’s always a solution; that you should never give up. And I feel like I have learned some of that from her.”