Arrow Season 7: 10 Reasons It Should Be The Last

The Emerald Archer has been making his presence felt on the small screen for six years now. Arrow debuted on The CW back in 2012 and, in that time, the show has received critical acclaim, broken ratings records, and spawned spinoff shows The Flash, Supergirl, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. When you think about all that, it's no surprise that the show is credited for reinventing superhero TV.

With its summer hiatus nearly behind it, the Arrowverse originator will return to The CW this fall for its seventh season. With Oliver Queen in prison, Ricardo Diaz in the wind, and a new archer in town, Season 7 promises to be an intriguing one. In fact, there have been rumors that it could be the show's final season, with series star Stephen Amell even claiming that he wants it to be intentionally written that way.

Given where we are at in the story, the idea of this being the show's final season doesn't seem that outlandish. Moreover, after some ups and downs, the show may even benefit from a solid, well-written final act for Oliver Queen.

Declining ratings are an inevitability for the vast majority of TV shows, and Arrow is no different. When the series debuted on The CW, it was a ratings hit, drawing a whopping 4.14 million viewers. As with all shows, the viewers would fluctuate throughout the season, levelling off between 2.5-3 million - an average it would maintain for the acclaimed second season and even through its rocky third season.

However, the melodrama in Season 4 had viewers turning off in their droves, with fans finally giving up after the writers resorted to killing off iconic Green Arrow character Black Canary - after which, the ratings never recovered. Even the show's applauded revival in Season 5 was unable to escape the damage, as it hit new series lows on a weekly basis. Nowadays, the show is lucky to exceed 1 million viewers.

While Arrow will (hopefully) never stoop to the unbearable depths of its lowest point ever again, ratings-wise it still remains a shell of what it once was. Too much damage has been done to the show for it to ever appeal to its core audience and thus, even if it does produce high-quality content throughout Season 7, it appears that very few fans will actually be watching it. Thus, it might be wise not to continue this freefall into Season 8.