Adam Rose/FOXPack your bags, Gleeks! We're leaving Lima behind and moving on to bigger and better things.
Although Glee is currently on hiatus, that didn't stop Fox's Programming President Kevin Reilly from spilling scoop on what's ahead for the comedy's remaining future at the TCA press tour Monday afternoon.
First things first: Reilly confirmed our suspicions about the length of the series saying, "Next season [of Glee] will be the final season." It pains us to say this, but we're ready to bid the musical comedy adieu. We had a really great time with all of our mega-talented McKinley High crew, and now we're excited to see the series off.
So what's coming up for the next season and a half? Reilly explained, "Ryan [Murphy] pitched the arc all the way through next season. What's going to happen this year is the kids will graduate and we're going to go to New York exclusively through the second half of the year, and then he's got some ideas about what we're going to do next year for the final year." We're currently doing a happy dance with this all-NYC announcement.
As for our high school characters, Reilly says there is already a plan in place for who will be transitioning into the all-NYC future and who will be staying behind as a Lima loser. (Sorry but you all were thinking it.) "Some are going to be graduating and moving on. Creatively, it would be ridiculous if everybody moved to New York, so there's going to be some who are going to graduate and move on. And they'll come back in when we do special episodes."
He continued, "They'll always be a part of it, and I think the way it's going to dovetail next season is you'll see some familiar faces coming around in some capacity, but for this season there will be a graduation, and several of the cast members will move on and a few others will move to New York. We're not going to be in Ohio for more than a few... As long as there's a show, there's Jane Lynch." Nice to see that our favorite national championship Cheerio coach will still have a job!
Glee returns Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. on Fox.
—Reporting by Lauren Piester