Netflix Just Gave Drama Series a Surprise Renewal

Netflix has handed out a surprise renewal to a long-running drama.

Deadline reports that the streaming giant has renewed romantic drama Virgin River for a record-breaking eighth season.

With the renewal, Virgin River is believed to be the longest-running live-action scripted series on Netflix, having passed Grace and Frankie and Orange is the New Black, both of which ran for seven seasons. Additionally, despite Spanish teen drama Elite ending with eight seasons, Virgin River will be coming up on 84 episodes, as opposed to Elite capping at 64.

Virgin River’s 10-episode Season 8 pickup comes ahead of Season 7, which only wrapped production earlier this month. Based on Robyn Carr’s novels of the same name, Virgin River premiered in 2019 and follows Alexandra Breckenridge’s Melinda “Mel” Monroe, who works as a midwife and nurse practitioner in the titular Northern California town with the hopes of starting fresh. Only she soon discovers it is not as simple as she expected.

The ensemble cast also consists of Martin Henderson, Colin Lawrence, Jenny Cooper, Lauren Hammersley, Annette O’Toole, Tim Matheson, Ben Hollingsworth, Sara Dugdale, Zibby Allen, Marco Grazzini, Kai Bradbury, and Kandyse McClure. Sue Tenney developed the series and serves as executive producer alongside showrunners Patrick Sean Smith, Amy Palmer Robertson, Roma Roth, Christopher E. Perry, Carr, Erin Cardillo, Richard Kieth, and Jennifer Monroe. Ian Hay, Thomas Ian Griffith, Mary Page Keller, and Jackson Sinder are co-executive producers.

Virgin River’s early renewal is not so surprising. The series has appeared in the Global Top 10 English TV List 30 times since Netflix debuted the weekly Top 10 lists in 2021. Season 6 also debuted at No. 1 on the Top 10, where it stayed for four weeks. Additionally, the series has spent a total of 38 weeks on the Nielsen Top 10 since its debut.

Since Season 7 of Virgin River only just wrapped production, it might still be a while until a premiere date is announced. That being said, it’s hard to predict when Season 8 could be premiering, but fans will probably be waiting quite a long time. The wait will be worth it, and in the meantime, the first six seasons of Virgin River are streaming on Netflix. More information on the upcoming seventh season should be released soon.