An eight-year relationship with Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network is coming to an end for Tyler Perry with the eighth and final season of the popular drama “The Haves and the Have Nots.”
The soap, which focused on the battles between two wealthy Savannah families, will end in May and conclude with 196 episodes over eight years since its debut in 2013 as OWN’s first new scripted series.
It became Perry’s biggest series on OWN, which included other shows over the years such as “If Loving You Is Wrong,” “Love Thy Neighbor” and “The Paynes.” Perry’s shows helped bolster Winfrey’s network, which later embarked on other scripted shows such as “Queen Sugar” and “Greenleaf.”
“The Haves and the Have Nots” regularly drew nearly 3 million viewers per episode and was consistently among one of the top-rated scripted cable series for African-American women.
The final eight episodes, according to a press release, is being described as a “true-to-life Greek tragedy as Jim Cryer (John Schneider), and his rich friends find out what happens when personal flaws go unchecked. Karma has not been kind to the elite one percenters.”
Winfrey, in the same release, thanks Perry, “the incredible cast, the tireless crew and every single viewer who watched with bated breath each week and tweeted along with us these past eight years. I will be watching alongside you all during this final season.”
In 2017, Perry signed a new multi-year deal with Viacom, which owns BET, MTV, Nickelodeon and other cable networks as well as the streaming service BET+. He has since created several series for those networks including “Ruthless,” “Sistas,” “The Oval” and “Young Dylan.”
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