Jason Segel's Shrinking renewed for a third (and possibly final) season on Apple TV+

In what may qualify as the least surprising news to come out of New York Comic-Con 2024, Apple TV+ renewed Shrinking for a third season. The grief comedy stars How I Met Your Mother alum Jason Segel, who co-created the show with Ted Lasso‘s Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein. Like its football-focused predecessor, Shrinking is both critically acclaimed and a feel-good favorite. Though it may not have yet reached Ted Lasso level of ubiquity, a renewal for this series was a slam dunk—but it may just be its last.  

“I’m so lucky to work on Shrinking with actors, writers and a crew so talented that they all elevate the material,” Lawrence in a statement (via TVLine). “I’m even luckier that they are people I’d want to spend time with anyway. Huge thanks to to Apple TV+ and Warner Bros. for the amazing partnership and support. So grateful we get to keep making this show. Onward!”

At a Shrinking Comic-Con panel attended by The A.V. Club, Goldstein revealed that they’ve already written five episodes of the third season. (The seasons are only 10-12 episodes, so that’s roughly half the season in the can.) Reiterating what Lawrence told our own Saloni Gajjar, Goldstein confirmed the show had been pitched with a three-season arc, “but there’s always a chance” that the story could continue beyond that. (Which is just another similarity this show shares with Ted Lasso.)

Shrinking stars Segel as a therapist who recently lost his wife and has to re-learn how to navigate his life and his practice. “Season one is triage. I have felt starting at rock bottom is hopeful because the only place to go is up,” Segel said at the Comic-Con panel. “That’s what happens with Jimmy. In season two, it was about the idea of: ‘Okay I’ve got it now,’ but no, you don’t have it. He still has repair work to be done.”

In the first season of Shrinking, Jimmy (Segel) came out of his grief spiral and decided to go rogue in his therapy practice. His new, more hands-on approach to life and work helped to repair some of the damage in his relationship with his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) and evolve his relationship with his friends, patients, and colleagues, particularly his late wife’s best friend Gaby (Jessica Williams), with whom he begins a brief affair. But the questionable ethics of his new therapy put him at odds with his mentor Paul (Harrison Ford), and may have triggered his patient Grace (Heidi Gardner) to commit a crime for which she finds herself in prison at the start of the second season. Guest stars in the second season include the show’s co-creator Goldstein and Damon Wayans Jr. (New Girl). At Comic-Con, Segel also teased another guest star who is “someone I’ve wanted to work with again for a long time” in a new context that he’s “excited” for everyone to see. (Another HIMYM pal? A Freaks And Geeks co-star? Someone else from the Apatow-verse? Place your bets now!)

Segel and Williams were both nominated for Emmys for Shrinking‘s first season. The show also garnered three nominations for the Critics’ Choice Television Awards, including a nod for Best Comedy Series. Shrinking returns to Apple TV+ with one new episode weekly every Wednesday beginning on October 16 through December 25.