Was the real reason for Modern Family being canceled after 11 successful seasons disclosed? Details explored

It's been five years since Modern Family ended, but fans are still wishing that it hadn't. The ABC show ran for eleven seasons, from 2009 to 2020, and revolved around three families that were related to each other. The most appreciative thing about Modern Family is how it never had to offend anyone to be funny. But simultaneously, it did make fun of the characters and their behaviors, making viewers laugh for eleven seasons.

The actual reason for canceling Modern Family was never revealed by the co-creators, Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan. While the first eight seasons performed great for the network, season 9 of the show did not do as well.

Loyal fans of the show might have missed that, but the writers, Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, did not. They assumed season 10 would be the last season, but its popularity convinced them to bring back Modern Family for the eleventh and last season.

Why did Modern Family end?

Modern Family was quite literally that, a very modern family. However, it was not one from the beginning. The family consisted of Jay Pritchett as the patriarch, who remarried a woman named Gloria after his divorce. Gloria has a son called Manny from a previous marriage. Jay and Gloria later go on to have a son, Joe.

Jay's two adult children, Claire and Mitchell, have their own families. Claire Dunphy and Phil Dunphy are married with three children, Hailey, Alex, and Luke. Mitchell is gay and in a relationship with Cameron Tucker. In the first season of the show, Mitch and Cam adopt a Vietnamese baby girl, Lily.

It was not a perfect family. Jay was homophobic, Claire was not a big fan of Gloria (due to her and Jay's age difference), and Jay did not like Phil too much (Phil and Claire got pregnant with Hailey before they got married).

But over the seasons, these issues get resolved, and the characters grow together. At the end of Modern Family, Jay loved Cameron and Phil as much as or even more than he loved Mitchell. Claire and Gloria have a great relationship, and the kids are all grown up.

The question that arises a lot is why the show ended when it was going so well. Writers Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan had planned to make season ten the last season. They wanted to wrap up the story and all its subplots, and thus, we saw many sudden events on the show.

DeDe Pritchett (Claire and Mitch's mother) died, which made the family process a lot of their unrealized emotions. Hailey and Dylan got back together (which many fans did not like, as they felt Hailey belonged with Andy). They also had twins, which solidified them as endgame and felt a bit rushed. Alex accepted a research internship in Antarctica. Despite all that, season ten was a huge success.

That made the writers go on for another season, but that was it. Season 11 was decided to be the last season of Modern Family. Besides, the success of season 10 made the writers realize that fans wanted to see more of the characters and what lies ahead for them. Thus, they wrote season 11 to give each character the proper ending that they deserved.

While Modern Family ended in 2020, fans still rewatch the show religiously. They love Cameron's eccentric personality, Phil's dad jokes, Jay's wisdom mixed with witty dialogue, Gloria's boldness, and Lily's one-liners. Here's hoping the show has a reunion special soon so that fans can get to see their beloved cast together again. But until then, you can stream Modern Family on Prime Video and Hulu.

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