EXCLUSIVE: Another year, another early renewal and another record for Netflix‘s popular romantic drama Virgin River. Mere days after production wrapped on the upcoming seventh season of the series starring Alexandra Brekenridge and Martin Henderson, it has been renewed for Season 8, which will once again consist of 10 episodes.
With the pickup, Virgin River is believed to be Netflix’s longest-running live-action scripted series. It has surpassed comedy Grace and Frankie and comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black‘s seven-season runs and has edged Spanish teen drama Elite‘s eight seasons with 84 vs. 64 episodes across them. (Grace and Frankie‘s episode count remains a Netflix high mark at 94 though the show is half-hour and Virgin River is one-hour, translating to roughly 70+ hours vs. 45+ produced for the drama vs. the comedy.)
It is not surprising that Virgin River, one of Netflix’s “blue sky”, “comfort” series, has eclipsed flashier, higher-profile shows on the platform with its longevity. It is based on popular IP, Robyn Carr’s novels; it employs a sustainable premise, the relationships among characters in a small town; it features a strong cast led by Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson and anchored by veterans Tim Matheson and Annette O’Toole; and it boast appealing economics, filming in Canada in a handful of primary locations with little stunts or special effects involved. A brief Mexico shoot for the upcoming seventh season, believed to involve just a couple of cast members, including Henderson and Breckenridge, marks the first time the show has left Vancouver.
Virgin River‘s reasonable cost is complemented by its continuing strong ratings performance. Since the show’s third season in 2021 when Netflix introduced its weekly Top 10 lists, Virgin River has appeared in the Global Top 10 English TV List 30 times, garnering over 140M views. Most recently, Season 6 debuted at #1 on the Top 10 (English) and remained on the list for four weeks. The series has also spent 38 weeks on the Nielsen Top 10 since its debut.
There is another factor into Virgin River’s swift Season 8 order. Cognizant of fans’ frustration over long gaps between seasons that have been stretching to as much two years recently, impacted by the 2023 strikes, streamers have stepped up early renewals to help minimize the wait. The pickups are coming earlier than in the past.
Virgin River, which has been able so far to deliver a new season every calendar year since its 2029 launch, was renewed for Season 7 last October, more than four months after Season 6 had wrapped production and nearly two months before it premiered. The Season 8 pickup comes a week or so after filming wrapped on Season 7 with the short trip to Mexico after the primary Vancouver shoot ended June 22 and about six months ahead of its debut. (Netflix has not set a Season 7 premiere date but the show was left off the streamer’s 2025 slate released in January. It is projected to debut in December 2025 at the earliest and more likely in January-February 2026.)
Similarly, The Diplomat was picked up for Season 4 in May, months ahead of its fall Season 3 premiere. The Season 3 renewal in October 2024 came three weeks before the Season 2 premiere.
Virgin River is a romance story that kicked off with nurse practitioner Melinda Monroe (Breckenridge) moving to the remote California town of Virgin River. Yearning for a fresh start, Monroe discovered that small-town living isn’t quite as simple as she expected and that she had to learn to heal herself before she could truly make Virgin River her home.
The Season 7 is executive produced by showrunner Patrick Sean Smith, Sue Tenney, Amy Palmer Robertson, Roma Roth, Christopher E. Perry, Carr, Erin Cardillo, Richard Keith, and Jennifer Monroe. Co-executive producers include:Ian Hay, Thomas Ian Griffith, Mary Page Keller and Jackson Sinder.
Season 7 returning main cast Includes Breckenridge, Henderson, Matheson, O’Toole, Colin Lawrence, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Allen, Sarah Dugdale, Grazzini, Kai Bradbury and Kandyse McClure.
