10 Great TV Shows We’re Saying Goodbye to in 2025

Break out your hankies and catch your favorites in their final seasons

Nicholas DeRenzo,

AARP

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Published May 13, 2025

a still image from the final season of 'The Handmaid's Tale'

'The Handmaid's Tale' is among the shows ending in 2025.

Steve Wilkie/Disney

Spring and early summer tends to be make-or-break time for TV shows. Traditionally the end of the network season — which has gotten more complicated after the streaming revolution — it’s the moment when shows get renewed or canceled, teeter “on the bubble” or have their swan songs after long, storied runs. This year, we say goodbye to some greats, including the first streaming show to win best series at the Emmys, a game-changing non-English thriller and a family sitcom that has been an American fixture since the 1980s.

The Conners (ABC, ended April 23)

This Roseanne-free Roseanne reboot came on the heels of its title character’s well-publicized media scandals, and it followed Dan Conner (John Goodman, 72) and his kids and grandkids as they picked up the pieces after his wife Roseanne’s death from an opioid overdose. Over the course of seven seasons, the ensemble comedy welcomed new recurring characters played by the likes of Katey Sagal (71), Sean Astin (54) and Mad Men’s Jay R. Ferguson (50). The sequel maintained the original’s trademark mix of sweet and sour, ending with a final-season plotline about a pharmaceutical lawsuit that’s both emotional and political.

Watch The Conners

You (Netflix, ended April 24)

Gossip Girl heartthrob Penn Badgley plays deliciously evil as the charming stalker and serial killer Joe Goldberg on this psychological thriller that started on Lifetime before moving to Netflix. Over five seasons, Joe cycles through jobs and personas, but he keeps coming back to his favorite pastimes: stalking, falling obsessively in love, and committing murder. The final season dropped on Netflix in late April with a gasp-inducing climax that you’ll have to see to believe.

Watch You

The Equalizer (CBS, ended May 4)

First a 1980s TV series, then a film trilogy led by Denzel Washington (70), The Equalizer was reborn once again as a CBS crime drama. Queen Latifah, 55, stepped into the role of Robyn McCall, a former CIA operative and divorced single mother who acts as a street vigilante for those in need around New York City. The producers got some warning that this season might be their last, giving them enough time to craft a satisfying (read: romantic) finale.

Watch The Equalizer

The Righteous Gemstones (Max, ended May 4)

Few shows could walk the tightrope between raunchy and heartfelt quite like this HBO comedy, which followed a family of South Carolina megachurch pastors led by patriarch Eli Gemstone (Goodman) and his three kids: Jesse (Danny McBride), Kelvin (Adam DeVine) and Judy (Edi Patterson). The raucous final season introduced Megan Mullally (66) as a new love interest for the widowed Eli, plus a kaleidoscopic assortment of zany subplots, including a therapy monkey named Dr. Watson and a show-within-a-show about a teenage Jesus called Teenjus.

Watch The Righteous Gemstones

Andor (Disney+, ending May 13)

Diego Luna stars as thief-turned-rebel-spy Cassian Andor in this Disney+ Star Wars prequel, set just before the events of Rogue One. Created by the Bourne film franchise writer/director Tony Gilroy, 68, Andor has been the best-reviewed Star Wars series to date, earning three Emmy nominations in its first season, including outstanding drama. The sophomore season has received critical acclaim for its willingness to dive into hot-button issues like sexual assault, undocumented labor and genocide.

Watch Andor

S.W.A.T. (CBS, ending May 16)

Based on the 1970s TV series and 2003 film adaptation of the same name, this CBS action drama has been keeping fans on their toes: It was canceled in May 2023, uncanceled a few days later, and renewed for a final seventh season — before the network reversed course and renewed it for yet another season in April 2024. This time around, it seems to really be the end of the road. “Trust me, all of us — the family over at S.W.A.T.— we ain’t done chasing bad guys,” star Shemar Moore, 55, said in an Instagram video, in which he pitched the series to streamers who might want to rescue it. “Helicopter chases and motorcycle chases and car chases and blowing up stuff… we ain’t done.”

Watch S.W.A.T.

FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International (CBS, ending May 20)

As the creator of Law & Order, Dick Wolf (78) knows a thing or two about successful procedural franchises. On CBS, he launched the FBI universe in 2018, but it has proven to have less staying power than L&O. On May 20, the Eye Network is shutting down two-thirds of the bureaus with the back-to-back series finales of FBI: International at 9 pm ET and FBI: Most Wanted at 10 pm ET. In April, it was reported that CBS greenlit a spinoff called CIA, starring Tom Ellis, who’s best known as the devilish titular protagonist on Lucifer.

Watch FBI: Most Wanted

Watch FBI: International

The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu, ending May 27)

For six harrowing seasons, the first streaming show to win Outstanding Series at the Emmys has expanded the world of Gilead beyond the beloved novel by Margaret Atwood, 85. It’s impossible to discuss the final season without major spoilers, but suffice it to say that things are still bleak, the plot is still palm-sweatingly twisty, and Elisabeth Moss’s June Osborne is still one of TV’s most complex and compelling heroines. Next up, Hulu has announced that it’s adapting a spinoff series of Atwood’s 2019 novel The Testaments, which will see Ann Dowd (69) reprise her role as Aunt Lydia.

Watch The Handmaid’s Tale

Squid Game (Netflix, ending June 27)

When this dystopian survival thriller premiered on Netflix in 2021, it ushered in a new American obsession with all things South Korean. The show centered around a contest with 456 players who competed in a series of children’s games for the chance to win about $40 million. The catch? You lose, you die. Squid Game made history as the first non-English series to earn an Emmy nomination for best drama, taking home six trophies, including best actor for Lee Jung-jae, 52. Season two ended with a tragic cliffhanger, and the final run of episodes sees the protagonists even more determined to dismantle the game from within.

Watch Squid Game

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Nicholas DeRenzo is a contributing writer who covers entertainment and travel. Previously he was executive editor of United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Sunset and New York magazine.