‘Veep’ Will Sign off With 7 Episodes in 2019

Veep will reportedly come to a close next year, with a final season consisting of just 7 episodes.

Veep has been on a prolonged hiatus as its star, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, has been battling breast cancer for nearly a year. Thankfully, the actress came through the treatment all right, and she is back at work on the beloved political comedy. However, according to a report by TV Line, the upcoming final season will be its shortest ever — just seven episodes long.

Veep typically follows the model as other HBO shows: ten episode seasons. The only exception was season 1, which had just eight episodes as the network determined how popular it would turn out to be. Apparently, HBO is getting more and more comfortable cutting the episode count of its various series.

When asked by TV Line, a spokesperson for HBO would not specify why the season was going to be so short. However, they did confirm the news officially. The premium cable giant shortened the two final seasons of Game of Thrones as well, reportedly opting to raise the budget on six action-packed episodes, rather than spread it across 10. Since Veep has not had any CGI dragons yet, this is probably not the reason for them.

Production on Veep season 7 began in early August, as Dreyfus herself showed with an Instagram selfie taken in the packed writers’ room. The season has no specific premiere date yet; it is just expected in 2019.

Dreyfus announced her cancer diagnosis last September. She later confirmed that she had gotten the bad news the very day after the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, where she won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the sixth time in a row. She was forced to put her career on hold to focus on her health, and she did just that.

“1 in 8 women get breast cancer. Today, I’m the one,” she tweeted at the time. “The good news is that I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring friends, and fantastic insurance through my union. The bad news is that not all women are so lucky, so let’s fight all cancers and make universal health care a reality.”

Dreyfus finished chemotherapy in January of 2018, and underwent surgery in February. She then went back in for another round of chemotherapy. While she never specifically announced that she was in remission, she showed that she was doing well when she took a tropical vacation back in July. Not long after the getaway, Dreyfus was right back at work.