Joe Bob Briggs announces some great news about the future of The Last Drive-In!

While many fans have been speculating that Shudder series The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs may have just ended its final season, Mr. Briggs himself popped up on social media with a surprise announcement. Instead of bidding farewell, he let us all know that TLDI has been officially renewed for a seventh season!

In true Joe Bob fashion, he pronounced that he, Darcy and the rest of the crew would be continuing their “deep dives” for another year with “great movies, not-so-great movies, horrible movies” and lots of The Last Drive-In hijinks.

Season six was somewhat divisive among fans because of some changes in the format. The season was considerably longer than the previous five, but pulled away from the double features everyone was accustomed to. Instead, each episode featured only one film, which upset some people.

I myself am a Mutant, but the change in format was fine by me, since I never could make it to the second film anyway. Episodes start at 9:00 p.m., and usually ran more than two hours with Joe Bob’s commentary and the crew’s shenanigans. Typically, I would stream the second film on demand once it became available.

While some things about The Last Drive-In changed, others stayed the same

The specials kept on coming, which was great news, and tonight will be the live debut of The Last Drive-In: Nightmareathon. For those not in the know, we will be treated to six films tonight, in honor of the series’ sixth season finale.

It’s also a callback to the marathon that began The Last Drive-In phenomenon, which famously “broke the internet” when Shudder’s servers couldn’t keep up with the number of people tuning in to watch the return of the legendary Joe Bob Briggs. That marathon was the debut of Darcy the Mail Girl, who actually convinced Briggs that he should make a return to the airwaves. He wasn’t convinced that his fan base would come back to watch, but as we all know now, he was wrong in the very best way.

And Darcy has definitely proven her value to the show over the past six years. She has shown how much of a horror movie fiend she is, has given us some amazing cosplay (Mary Lou and Frankenhooker are my personal favorites), campaigned to bring Hogzilla to the show and given a dose of emotion to many episodes. On one of the Christmas specials, she and Joe Bob each shared a very moving personal story.

While some trolls continue to bash her for her personal appearance and demeanor, I will defend her to the end, and I’m sure Joe Bob will as well.

The Last Drive-In weathered COVID, which prevented the special guest appearances we had become accustomed to. Instead of appearing in-person, guests such as Eli Roth were patched in via video. There was a change in the set during that time as well.

It remains to be seen if the new format will stick around for season seven, but it makes sense for Shudder to continue it. With some viewers threatening to cancel their subscriptions in between seasons, it helps Shudder to prolong the season and to continue with the specials (typically, we can count on both Halloween and Christmas specials, along with a handful of others).

However the show continues from this point, let’s all just rejoice in the fact that we will be able to delight in watching The Last Drive-In for another season!