‘How I Met Your Mother’ Update: Is Season 9 Happening or Not?

For months we've held uncertainty over the current season of 'How I Met Your Mother,' admittedly written as the last year for Ted, Robin, Barney, Lily and Marshall until CBS manages to negotiate a deal for a ninth season. The deadline for decision is fast approaching, as series creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have specified a need to know by the end of December which writing path to choose. So what are the odds that CBS will come through on a ninth season? 

'How I Met Your Mother' fans feel a great divide as the show heads toward the last episodes of 2012, which could signal the beginning of the end for the series. Many would certainly relish an additional year for the gang, but would the series be better off if Carter Bays and Craig Thomas end 'How I Met Your Mother' this May, as they've currently written toward?

CBS certainly wants the series to return, especially to prevent another hole to open in their lucrative Monday line-up ('Two and a Half Men' likely ending soon as well), but still faces steep negotiations from the creators, studio, and all five cast members. Given his increasingly prolific movie career, Jason Segel is seen as as the least interested in returning for a ninth season, though Deadline points out similarities to Jennifer Aniston's position on a tenth season of 'Friends' that ended up with the whole cast sticking together and returning to a big group payday regardless.

Much of the situation remains up in the air, but a decision on a ninth season of 'How I Met Your Mother' is expected by the end of the month. The eighth season continues this Monday with "The Over-Correction."

Do you think 'How I Met Your Mother' should end this year? Are you dying to meet the mother, would you rather have an additional season with the gang? Let us know in the comments!