Greenleaf first premiered in 2016 on the Oprah Winfrey Network, also known as OWN, and has been renewed for a 5th season set to premiere in June of 2020. However, after this season, it’s time for fans across the country to say their goodbyes for good.
Since its premiere, the dramatic television series has garnered praise from its extensive viewership and critics, as just last year it was averaging out at 1.1 million viewers. In addition to winning the hearts and minds of viewers, Greenleaf has also achieved multiple honors consisting of 10 NAACP Image Award nominations.
Within these nominations, the program gained a win for Outstanding Drama in 2020 and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama, courtesy of actress Lynn Whitfield, in both 2019 and 2020.
What Is Happening In the Fifth and Final Season?
Greenleaf is a church drama that focuses on the Greenleaf family of Tennessee who lives in high-esteem and wealth. With their mansion full of secrets and scandals and their megachurch that serves as a beacon to the community, the family certainly has their hands full keeping up appearances, especially after the daughter they haven’t seen for 20 years suddenly arrives back home.
Understanding what she is doing back in her hometown, as well as why she left after her sister Faith’s mysterious death twenty years prior, is something that the Greenleaf parents attempt to do while keeping viewers of the program on their toes.
In the fifth and final season to come, we see the Greenleaf family as they struggle to maintain normalcy in the wake of losing their beloved megachurch to the likes of Bob Whitmore and Harmony and Hope Ministries. While they do their best to band together, the secrets they’ve been keeping underwater for years begin bubbling back up to the surface and threatening to destroy what they’ve worked so hard for.
What Has Been Said About the Cancellation
After the network ordered a 5th season, creator Craig Wright decided that it was time for the show to come to an end. Also known as the creator of Lost and Six Feet Under, Wright is no stranger to the television industry, and though many are disappointed to hear that he chose to not renew Greenleaf, he has an explanation for why he thought its time had come.
In an interview after the announcement had been made, Wright said “I started my TV career on Six Feet Under which went five seasons, and that show is beloved because it ended before people were ready for it to end. Those characters and their reality seem more real because they left too soon, like real people do.”
He also discussed what he and Oprah Winfrey had spoken about from the beginning in regards to the show’s run time. They had agreed from the start that the show should be five seasons, and when they arrived there, they realized that this was where they’d always been intending for it to go.
Wright finished with, “I’m glad we’re finishing it strong rather than watching it get canceled on its own.”
The final season of Greenleaf will appear sometime in early June 2020. It’s speculated to hit internet streaming services like Netflix as soon as early November.