Charlie Day Hints That ‘It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Season 18 Could Be the Last One

After 20 years on television, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia could reach the end of the road as soon as next season — right when the show becomes old enough to legally drink.

In December 2020, Rob Mac, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and the rest of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia team inked a contract extension with FX that secured the show’s future through Season 18. Since then, Mac bought a soccer team with Ryan Reynolds, Day and Howerton got serious about their film careers and each new season of Always Sunny grew shorter in length while the wait between them grew longer. Now, as the trio who started Always Sunny’s record-breaking run on a shoestring budget back in 2025 reach the end of their current deal with FX, Day is hinting that, just as the real-life Mac’s Tavern went out of business back in June, Paddy’s Pub may be preparing to close its doors for good.

In a new interview with Boston.com, Day revealed that he and his co-conspirators are prepared to bring an end to the longest-running live-action sitcom in the history of American television at the conclusion of its next season, depending on the “appetite” of FX for more It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. So, maybe, if Paddy’s wants to stay open, it might be time to revisit the whole Carmine’s rebrand.

“I think either this next season — Season 18— will be the last, or maybe we’ll try to make it to Season 20,” Day postulated when asked whether the end is nigh for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. “But we were having a conversation about it the other night, and a lot of it depends on FX’s appetite to keep making it.”

Still, Day insists, if given the opportunity to continue the story of the Paddy’s Pub Gang, his first choice would be to keep the show running past its current contract. “The good thing is Rob and I and Glenn still love it. We’re still proud of it. We don’t want it to just go away,” Day maintained. “But at the same time, if they told us, ‘Season 18 is going to be your last,’ then that’s what it would be, and we would try to make it as good as we could. But we’ll see.”

Day’s comments echo what other It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast members have said about their willingness to keep the show going while they acknowledged that, ultimately, it’s up to the network to extend their contract. Back when Season 17 first began in July, Danny DeVito said of the show’s future, “We have a contract with FX up to 18 seasons, and all of us feel as though we can do that. So that’s at least one more,” though he added, “Beyond that, I’m not sure they’ll ask for more seasons, so next year could be it.”

Similarly, some It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia superfans admitted that it might be time to wrap the series up in a recent roundtable with Cracked. The consensus was that, even if the show survives past its current contract, with DeVito in his 80s, Always Sunny shouldn’t even bother to try and make plans post-Frank, and the fate of the series should be tied to DeVito’s health and his willingness to continue working in his advanced age.

Ultimately, it will be up to FX to pull the plug on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia when they see fit — but, even then, the fans should stay wary and make sure that the show’s corpse isn’t just an impressively life-like cake.