‘Riverdale’ to End With Season 7 on The CW

It’s the end of the line for Riverdale.

The CW announced Thursday that the series will end with its seventh season. The show is set for a midseason berth and will premiere in early 2023.

Riverdale, created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, became a breakout for The CW after its 2017 debut — aided by a streaming run on Netflix that helped its second-season ratings jump by about 30 percent.

The dark take on Archie comics has fallen off some in recent seasons, however, and as The CW is paring down its lineup of scripted originals, it will exit the network after a final run. The show’s current season, airing on Sunday nights, is averaging just under half a million viewers after a week of delayed viewing.

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“I’m a big believer in giving series that have long runs an appropriate sendoff,” The CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz told reporters Thursday. “We want to make sure it goes out the right way.”

Pedowitz added that he and Aguirre-Sacasa had a conversation Wednesday, and the show’s producers agreed that ending after seven seasons felt right.

Riverdale was one of only three remaining scripted originals that was covered as part of The CW’s former Netflix output deal. The others, All American and The Flash — both of which are also on the 2022-23 schedule — are all that remain from the former $1 billion pact that The CW’s corporate parents, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, opted to not renew so its originals could stream on their respective platforms, Paramount+ and HBO Max.

Riverdale stars KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Cole Sprouse, Madelaine Petsch, Mädchen Amick, Casey Cott, Charles Melton and Vanessa Morgan. Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. TV produce the series; Aguirre-Sacasa is the showrunner and executive produces with Berlanti Productions’ Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter and Archie Comics publisher and CEO Jon Goldwater.