'The Big Bang Theory' May End After Season 10, Says Boss

Increasingly rare as a broadcast success story, The Big Bang Theory will no less come to an end sometime in the next few years, already pushing past most sitcom shelf-lives midway through its ninth season. CBS has already contracted the egghead comedy through a tenth year, but is The Big Bang Theory coming to an official close thereafter?

Very possibly, according to showrunner Steve Molaro. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Molaro acknowledged that CBS might work out additional (read: costly) deals with The Big Bang Theory stars, but for the moment at least, Season 10 looks more like a potential endpoint for the highly-rated CBS comedy:

I think so. I can’t speak to the future or on behalf of the cast or where we’ll be then but it’s certainly possible that it could go past that. The reality is that maybe season 10 is the ending point. The real answer is I don’t know and all I can do right now is go episode to episode and try to make each one the best that we can. There’s still so many episodes to go. Even if hypothetically season 10 was the end, I wouldn’t be focusing on that yet. That seems like something that would be dealt with way down the line.

Executive producer Chuck Lorre kept deliberately vaguer, noting that he’d never expected The Big Bang Theory to make it nine seasons, and therefore “I’m not going to presume to know how many years this has because it’s ridiculous for me to guess.”

The show still has a few stones unturned, Molaro noting that several notable parents have yet to appear (especially Howard’s father), despite being awash in milestones like Sheldon and Amy’s first attempt at intimacy, or the upcoming 200th episode. On that subject at least, Molaro waffles about planning anything special:

It’s such a weird thing! It's just a number! Do we really need to pull out all the stops and do something crazy? I don’t know. I've been starting to kick around things we might be able to do if we really want to do something extra special but nothing concrete yet.

Still, should Season 10 mark a conclusive endpoint to the series? How much life does The Big Bang Theory have left?