Madam Secretary To End With Season 6

Madam Secretary's recently-ordered sixth season will be its last, CBS announced on Wednesday. The 10-episode farewell run "will tie up the storyline," said network prez Kelly Kahl, who added, "We liked to be able to do this, to send show the off with a great deal of respect and celebration."

As series co-creators Barbara Hall and Lori McCreary told TVLine after the Season 5 finale, upcoming episodes likely will chronicle Elizabeth's experiences as a candidate in a political primary and presidential election. [pmc_inline_gallery]

"We've always been about pulling back the curtain on the State Department and showing the process of diplomacy, so this is going to be pulling back the curtain on a campaign and everything that that involves," Hall said. Viewers will recall that, after some back-and-forth with her conscience — how to leave all the good and necessary work at State behind, Elizabeth wondered? — McCord eventually announced her run for the Oval Office in the final moments of the season-ender.

Madam Secretary, which had been on the bubble at the end of several of its recent seasons, wrapped Season 5 on April 21 with a 0.4 rating and 4.8 million total viewers, holding steady in the demo but bringing in its second-smallest audience ever.