The Haves And The Have Nots ends after 196 episodes

These days, with so many different things to watch and ways to watch them, it can be hard for just one thing to make an impact if it isn’t, say, a six-episode HBO miniseries or the only new thing on Netflix that everyone wants. to make fun of. And then there is The Haves and the Have Nots, an original drama on OWN that will end later this year after airing 196 episodes over eight seasons – which is a lot. Credit for the show’s longevity goes to creator Tyler Perry, who always valued quantity over… you know, the other thing, even though it’s not like The Haves and the Have Nots (which is an unwieldy title) was an underdog series that no one has ever watched. As reported by Deadline, the series averages 3 million viewers and is “consistently” ranked among the most watched cable shows by black women.

But this will all soon be a thing of the past, because once the show – which Sonia Saraiya called “Black Downton abbey“ in a AV Club review eight years ago– is returning from his mid-season hiatus in May, he will air the final batch of episodes of his eighth and final season. Oprah Winfrey, the OW in OWN, said the show’s success is entirely due to Perry’s “very keen creativity and imagination”, with Deadline teasing that there will be a “finale that no one sees coming.” Exciting! But apparently not exciting enough for Perry and OWN to even go to 200 episodes. It can’t be that hard to write four episodes of a TV show, right? Come on, Perry!