The show was actually due to end in 2006, mainly because of high production costs. The 10th season finale featured a wedding and a family reunion and former castmembers Barry Watson and Jessica Biel were on hand to help the show say goodbye. At the last minute, execs changed their minds and decided to renew 7th Heaven to help kick off the new CW network.
The show’s budget had to be cut for season 11 and, as a result, several regular castmembers weren’t in every episode. For the first time, the Camden household occasionally felt a little empty. Though the show’s ratings were still pretty good by the end of the season, the series was cancelled for real in May 2007. The true series finale concluded with the Camden clan taking a cross-country road-trip together. This episode was shot before the cancellation news was announced so it doesn’t have the same sentimental touches as the season 10 finale. Not surprisingly, this one wasn’t quite as fulfilling to many longtime viewers.
Which finale does the 7th Heaven cast prefer? We had the opportunity to pose that question to series star Stephen Collins recently and he said, “Dramatically, for me and I think for those of us who were in it, [we prefer] the actual finale — the 11th season. I thought that was a stronger episode. The “first time” finale of year 10 did bring everyone back but they sort of “threw them all up on the stage” in kind of a hodge-podge way and it wasn’t very credible — but it was nice to have Jessica Biel back and Barry Watson. That was fun, really fun, and I think that was maybe more fun for the viewers. But, from an acting point of view, I liked the way we went out when we actually went out.”
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Though many believed that it was the high ratings of the 10th season finale that earned 7th Heaven a reprieve, Collins says it was more than that. He continued, “It wasn’t just that the finale of the 10th season did well. It did do very well. It was that, when the whole 10th season numbers were done and here was the CW creating a network out of the WB and UPN, we had once again, for the entire season, been the highest-rated show on both networks.”
Collins recently told TV Guide that he didn’t feel like the new CW network really “got” the family drama, saying, “I don’t think they understood what they had, because they sort of inherited us.”
Though there haven’t been any recent discussions of a 7th Heaven reunion show, Collins would certainly be open to doing one and thinks it would be best suited for a family-friendly cable outlet like the Hallmark Channel. The actor says, “We talked about [a follow-up movie] before the series ended, and I think had the WB stayed in existence they probably would have made those deals before the show ended. I hope it happens. It’d be fun to go back there.” Stay tuned!
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