MTV Reportedly Decides If ‘Teen Mom OG’ Will Get More Episodes

MTV is reportedly bringing Teen Mom OG back for more episodes next year. Although the show’s ratings declined significantly for the first part of Season 9, MTV renewed the show for Season 9B, which will likely air this fall, reports The Ashley’s Reality Roundup. Amber Portwood, Cheyenne Floyd, Maci Bookout, Mackenzie McKee and Catelynn Lowell have all agreed to keep MTV’s cameras following their lives.

The stars might want to continue showing their lives on television, fans seem to be less interested. During Season 9A, which aired started in January and finished last week, the show hit record lows. The third episode of the season only drew 541,000 viewers, notes The Ashley. The April 6 episode drew just over 500,000 viewers. While Season 9 did start off with about 600,000 viewers, the show only topped out in the 500,000-range for the rest of the season. The April 13 episode, which was the last before Tuesday’s reunion special, only drew 567,000 viewers.

While television habits have changed in the decade-plus since Teen Mom OG began, these numbers are huge drop-offs from the show’s glory days. When the show premiered in December 2009, 2.1 million viewers tuned in. Over 3.6 million viewers watched the Season 1 finale, and 5.6 million viewers watched the October 2010 Season 2 finale. Teen Mom 2 also once routinely averaged 1 million viewers a week, but its most recent season saw some episodes attract less than 600,000 viewers, notes The Ashley.

One person not returning for Season 9B will be Ryan Edwards, the ex-boyfriend of Bookout and the father of her 12-year-old son Bentley. The first half of Season 9 tracked the ongoing custody drama between the two, which reportedly played a role in his departure from the show. Edwards’ wife, Mackenzie Edwards, claimed Bookout asked her agents to go directly to MTV executives to get Edwards and his family fired from the show. In an interview with Without a Crystal Ball, Mackenzie calimed Bookout’s agent “said that they wanted to focus on all of Maci’s abilities and her… whatever she does and that we took up the time on the show that she could be using to show all that.”

Meanwhile, Bookout said on the Baby Mamas No Drama that her relationship with Edwards has “honestly just been the show.” She also said her own future on the series is not guaranteed. “As the kids get older, it’s definitely a season-by-season thing.” On Tuesday, fans will finally see the drama that played out when the Season 9A reunion special was filmed. Bookout’s husband, Taylor McKinney, reportedly got into a heated argument with Edwards’ parents Jen and Larry. The argument did not get physical before the cameras, but McKinney reportedly asked Larry if he “wanted to take things outside.” Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.