Legendary Comedy Series Cancelled After 12 Seasons
Whose Line Is It Anyway? Star Colin Mochrie says the next season of the improv comedy show will be its last.
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Whose Line Is It Anyway? has long been a beloved improv comedy show, but The Wrap reported that it is finally coming to an end. Regular Whose Line performer Colin Mochrie delivered the news on Twitter that they would be shooting their final season in January. The revival of the series has run for 12 seasons on the CW.
The current iteration of Whose Line Is It Anyway? began in 2013, with Aisha Tyler as the host. Long-time fans of the show will remember the original run that aired on ABC and ABC Family from 1998 to 2007 with Drew Carey as the host. Longer-time fans of the show will remember that the first American iteration was an adaptation of the British show of the same name.
Throughout Whose Line Is It Anyway? history, the regular performers have included Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady. Stiles and Mochrie were both veterans of the original UK series as well. The fourth performer would often be a guest that would be a newcomer to the series, a member of the UK cast, or a celebrity guest.
The American version Whose Line Is It Anyway? had many guests throughout its original run and the subsequent CW revival. Robin Williams, Kathy Griffin, and Whoopi Goldberg all appeared as celebrity guest performers at one point. Guest performers from the UK series included Greg Proops, Brad Sherwood, and Chip Esten.
Another important piece of the Whose Line Is It Anyway? puzzle was improvisational musician Laura Hall, who would play the keyboard or piano for the singing games. Some of the fan-favorite games, music involved or not, throughout the show’s run were Scenes from a Hat, Greatest Hits, Props, Hoedown, Let’s Make a Date, Weird Newscasters, Duet, Helping Hands, and Questions Only. Although the CW version of the show has run for 12 seasons, the final season will be 20th overall.
There’s no word yet on how many episodes will be in the final season of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but hopefully they’ll deliver an extended season since it’ll be the last one. While the most recent two seasons of the series only had 10 episodes, early seasons of the CW run had anywhere from 12 to 24 episodes. Presumably, there won’t be any pandemic-related filming restrictions, so maybe they’ll be able to film a longer run.
The current 19th season of Whose Line Is It Anyway? also doesn’t have a set number of episodes announced, but again hopefully, it will be more than 10. We’ll have to see if they go big for the guest stars in the final season and bring back beloved parts of the show’s history, like Drew Carey. Even better, maybe a different network will pick up the show at some point.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? is executive produced by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson for Hat Trick Productions and Warner Bros TV. The CW was recently acquired by Nexstar Media who subsequently canceled ten shows on the network. While it’s not necessarily surprising that everyone’s favorite improv series was canceled, it is the latest disappointment in a long line of recent TV cancellations.
