CBS has decided to renew their popular Monday night sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, for seasons seven and eight and a total of 44 episodes. Though the series is up in the ratings (averaging a 3.6 in the demo and 9.13 million viewers) and the future of Two and a Half Men is less secure than it once was, you would think the renewal would have been a slam dunk. Not quite.

Negotiations have reportedly been going on for months to determine how much CBS would have to pay for each episode of the series. Up until this season, money hasn’t been a big factor because the network and 20th Century Fox Television agreed to a standard six season deal when How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) began. The series could be cancelled at any time and the network would only pay slightly more money if the sitcom was renewed. Well, the original agreement is about up and HIMYM is more popular than ever. It also makes the studio a lot of cash in syndication.

Under the new two year deal, it’s believed that CBS will pay in the range of $3.5 million per episode. That’s close to double the existing deal which is about $2 million per episode.

Whether or not the series will continue to see season nine remains to be seen. Co-star Jason Segel has already made it known that he plans to leave when his current contract is up, at the end of season eight. If the show is still a hit in 2013, the network, studio, and producers will have to decide if they want to continue without him, and potentially others in the cast if their contracts expire as well.

What do you think? Should How I Met Your Mother end after eight seasons? Is that long enough?

Image courtesy CBS.