Young Sheldon’s Final Season Episode Count Revealed

Young Sheldon‘s strike-delayed final season will be its shortest one yet.

TVLine can now confirm that Season 7 of the Big Bang Theory prequel will consist of 14 episodes — down eight episodes from the CBS sitcom’s usual 22-episode haul. (Season 4, which got off to a late start due to the coronavirus pandemic, was previously the shortest season at 18 episodes.)

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The short order was referenced by series star Raegan Revord, who acknowledged “these last 14 episodes” in an Instagram post Wednesday.

“I will say more later, but right now I am feeling so, so heartbroken, but also so grateful,” she wrote following Tuesday’s end date news. “Playing Missy Cooper for the past seven years and getting so be a part of this beloved franchise has been life changing. Filming these last 14 episodes will be so hard, but I am excited to get to opportunity to share this story with the fans and our Young Sheldon family.”

Young Sheldon’s Georgie and Mandy Spinoff: Everything We Know

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As previously reported, the Big Bang spinoff will kick off Season 7 on Thursday, Feb. 15 and wrap things up with a one-hour series finale — consisting of Episodes 13 and 14 — on May 16.

Production on the farewell run is already underway, with co-star Emily Osment sharing a “return to work” photo on her Instagram Story earlier today:

Assuming the prequel’s narrative keeps at a steady pace, Sheldon will turn 14 in Season 7 — the age at which, per Big Bang’s previously established timeline, the future Nobel Prize winner moves from Medford, Texas, to Pasadena, Calif., to begin his graduate studies at the California Institute of Technology.

That same year, Sheldon’s older brother Georgie — who recently put a ring on Mandy’s finger — marries for the first time, and family patriarch George meets his maker, setting up Young Sheldon for a bittersweet sendoff not unlike early ’90s classic The Wonder Years. But time will tell if the spinoff remains true to canon. As Holland previously warned TVLine, “just because [something happened on Big Bang] doesn’t mean it’s a story [our narrator] has to tell.”

This week’s Young Sheldon news comes as Lorre and Warner Bros. are readying a second Big Bang spinoff for streaming service Max — though Lorre recently said that development is still in the “prenatal” stage.

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