The Very Last TV Show, Ever, To Reach 10 Seasons: Will It Be Chicago P.D.? WCTH? The Flash? Or Something Else?

In fall 2021, The Simpsons is 'tooning up Season 33, SVU will solve a 23rd season of crimes, and NCIS and Grey's Anatomy are entering their 19th and 18th seasons, respectively.

But once you get past those and a few other warhorses, there's a sharp drop in longevity. A lot of single-digit runs. The fact is, it has gotten harder and harder to launch a certifiable "breakout hit" amid so much competition. (There are now 500+ scripted shows!) And as the TV landscape grows even more cutthroat — with broadcast and cable struggling to compete with streamers, and the streamers themselves coming to realize that sometimes less (episodes) is more (cost-efficient) — you have to wonder:

Is the prospect of any show, on any outlet, running for 10 seasons becoming increasingly improbable?

FX's American Horror Story hits the decade mark this month (and is already renewed through Season 13), while NBC's Chicago Fire does same in September. And Fire's first offshoot, Chicago P.D. is entering Season 9 this fall but is already renewed through Season 10.

But might Chicago P.D. and AHS in fact be the very last scripted series — at least of those that are currently active but maybe ever — to get 10 seasons?

Below, TVLine takes a look at the seven best candidates to maybe (but quite possibly not!) also hit the decade mark.

The Goldbergs is ABC's top-rated comedy, while among all of the network's scripted offerings, it ranks (a distant) third in the demo, behind Grey's Anatomy and Station 19. And yet... and yet, as noted in TVLine's recent "forecast" of shows that might be (quietly!) entering their final seasons, Adam's likely iminent graduation sure would make a natural end point for the 1980s-set family comedy.

UPDATE: The Goldbergs was renewed for Season 10 in April 2022.

With Good Girls and Zoey's Playlist both now cancelled (though the latter appears Roku-bound in some form), The Blacklist stands as NBC's lowest rated scripted series and its least watched drama. Factor in the polarizing exit of original cast member Megan Boone (and longtime showrunner Jon Bokenkamp), and we cannot see a future where this show pulls off even one more renewal.

UPDATE: The Blacklist was renewed for Season 10 in February 2022. (We've scheduled an ophthalmologist appointment for ourselves.)

Has the scarlet speedster lost more than a step? What had been The CW's top-rated and most watched series in 2019-20 now ties for second in the demo and ranks fourth in audience — and with significantly lower numbers than the year prior. Yet while TVLine readers gave Season 7 an average grade of "C," the "B" that the finale itself earned perhaps suggests that a West-Allen family focus, if not an eventual "passing of the baton" to a "next generation" of speedster heroes, might give the Arrowverse veteran the final "boost" it needs to grab two more renewals.

UPDATE: The Flash was renewed for Season 9 in March 2022.

Out of the shows cited here, When Calls the Heart arguably is the surest thing when it comes to hitting 10 seasons. For one, the period charmer's audience has not wavered over the past several seasons. Two, it wasn't long ago that Hallmark Channel saw fit to order a spinoff. And three, with the cancellation of Good Witch (and Chesapeake Shores going through potentially bumpy cast changes), When Calls the Heart is poised to become the cabler's No. 1 feel-good calling card.

There are multiple schools of thought on the eventual fate of The Walking Dead's original offshoot. On the one hand, with TWD entering its 11th and final season (and with the inert-on-arrival World Beyond only slotted for one more season), one could argue that AMC will hold onto Fear TWD for as long as it can.

Then again, there is the Daryl/Carol spinoff in the works, as well as a Tales of the Walking Dead anthology series. And rumblings of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan getting his own offshoot persist. So maybe AMC won't let Fear TWD stay too late at the party.

UPDATE: Fear TWD was renewed for Season 8 in October 2021.

Chicago Med is the most watched series among the #OneChicago trifecta, and it trails only Fire in the demo. And like P.D. and Fire, it is still working off a three-season renewal, meaning it will definitely be around for a season (No. 8) beyond the coming one. But the more "mixed" reaction to the medical drama's storylines has us wondering if it will eventually lose favor with viewers. Is NBC so vested in the #OneChicago trio that they'll forever be renewed as a unit? Or might a new, buzzier offshoot — Chicago News? Chicago High? Chicago Sanitation? — one day step in to relieve a vet?

Whereas sister series The Flash might leg it out to a ninth and then 10th season by way of a "next gen" reboot of sorts, the future isn't quite as semi-bright for the Legends. For as entertaining and famously b-a-n-a-n-a-s as the time-traveling misfits' adventures are, the show has veered so far from its roots and burned through so much material (Unicorns! Demons! Aliens!), it's hard to imagine it has fodder for another three seasons beyond the coming one.

Want scoop on any of the above shows? Email InsideLine@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt's Inside Line.