ABCGood Morning America started a little scandal about Scandal this morning. On the Wednesday, July 27 broadcast, the ABC morning show said this upcoming season, the show's sixth, would be its last.
"A little bittersweet, however, because it has been said that this is also going to be the final season," Lara Spencer said during the Pop News segment.
"Who said that?" Michael Strahan asked.
"I'm afraid to say it...Shonda Rhimes, she said, yeah," Spencer said. "And it is tremendous, so enjoy every minute of it."
But Rhimes never said that. Scandal is not ending this year. "Whoa, @GMA: I never said this was the final season of #Scandal," Rhimes said on Twitter. "Way to make me spit out my coffee!"
"@shondarhimes @GMA errr it really better not be the final season!!" Cynthia EriVo, the Tony winning star of The Color Purple, tweeted back.
About a half-hour later Spencer corrected herself. "Hey, during Pop News, we said that this was the last season of Scandal. Shonda has weighed in, she just tweeted, and she said we made her spit out her coffee. My apologies. She said she has an ending in mind, but that ending is not happening this next season. So thank you Shonda. Yes, we can all breathe, because as you guys know, it is my absolute favorite show," Spencer said. "So correction, ending in mind, but when that ending is happening we don't know. So, to be continued on the Scandal scandal. More scandal. So thank you Shonda, I'm sorry I made you spit out your coffee."
Rhimes tweeted back about the correction. "Thank you for the correction, @LaraSpencer," she tweeted, "you have my back!"
".@shondarhimes, always have your back! Always a #gladiator! #ScandalForever," Spencer replied on Twitter.
Rhimes has long said she has an ending in mind for the series that currently stars Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn, Scott Foley, Bellamy Young, Katie Lowes, Joshua Malina, Jeff Perry, Darby Stanchfield, Portia de Rossi, Guillermo Diaz, and Cornelius Smith Jr. In 2013 she told NPR the show has a "finite amount" of story to be told.
"I know what the end of Scandal will be, and I feel really good about that," Rhimes said. "And I can see where the end point is. And I don't think I'm going to change that...I know how long it will be, but we'll see."
Regardless of when that is, what we do is Scandal is back at work on the sixth season premiere. The cast has been tweeting from the table read and will begin shooting the episode soon. The series is currently scheduled to return midseason with a production delay to accommodate Washington's pregnancy.