(Ray Mickshaw / FOX)

On Sunday, FOX renewed its New Girl TV show for a shortened seventh and final season of eight episodes, but the sitcom was almost cancelled, instead. Aside from ratings dropping during the show’s largely successful run on FOX, it seems some of the trouble also involved cast availability.

Reportedly, as cancellation loomed, creator and executive producer Liz Meriwether made an 11th hour pitch for a final installment which includes a time jump. The seventh season of the New Girl TV series on FOX will reportedly pick up three years after the season six finale, which saw Jess (Zooey Deschanel) and Nick (Jake Johnson) reunite, Cece (Hannah Simone) and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) expecting a baby, and Winston (Lamorne Morris) reaching out to his father.

Here’s more from Deadline:

I hear that was because of various reasons (for instance, star Zooey Deschanel is on maternity leave having just given birth to her second child), most if not all main cast members would not be able to return to work until the fall. With the logistical challenges, no space on the midseason schedule and a Season 6 finale that tied in a bow so many loose ends, the network leaned heavily toward not going with a seventh season.

That’s when I hear creator/executive producer Liz Meriwether made a last-minute call and pitched a final-season arc that turned the tide. […]

…Season 7 would feature major milestones for all main characters over the period of one year, including a big one in the series finale.

I hear that pitch got everyone excited. Fox’s midseason schedule was revisited. After some discussions, the network’s executives were able to find a stretch of eight weeks for New Girl. Next, the actors’ deals had to be renegotiated to lower their guarantees from 13 to eight. When that was also done, with not a minute to spare, New Girl was officially renewed Sunday, just a day before Fox’s upfront presentation.

So, after a roller-coaster final stretch, a show with a long and successful history on Fox will get a proper send-off from the network and give fans a chance to say goodbye, instead of an after-the fact cancellation.

What do you think? Are you still watching New Girl? Are you happy it was renewed for season seven? How would you have felt, had it been cancelled after six seasons?