The Conners Season 4 - What We Know So Far

"The Conners" will be back for another season. As part of a huge renewal announcement from ABC, the popular "Roseanne" spinoff was given the green light by the network for a fourth season, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

While the renewal announcement is great news for fans, the series' pickup is not a huge surprise for two reasons. First, main cast members Sara Gilbert (Darlene Conner on the show), John Goodman (patriarch Dan Conner), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie Harris), and Lecy Goranson (Becky Conner) recently signed deals to return for another round of episodes for the hit sitcom (via Deadline). Second, "The Conners" was ABC's top-rated comedy this year, so the renewal was pretty much a no-brainer for the Disney-owned network. "The Conners" is executive produced by Bruce Helford, Tom Werner, Dave Caplan, Bruce Rasmussen and Tony Hernandez. Series star Gilbert also serves as an EP.

Here's everything else to know about the return of "The Conners."

There is no firm timeline just yet for when "The Conners" will return to ABC's schedule with new episodes. The series typically premieres in the fall, but filming restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted last season's production schedule and could very well impact the upcoming season, as well. It would not be surprising if "The Conners" Season 4 still premieres this fall on ABC, but prepare to wait a bit longer than usual.

Fans may recall that when "The Conners" originally debuted it was only supposed to run for 10 episodes. In October 2018, it was announced that the show's episode count had been upped to 11, according to TV Line. The following year, "The Conners" returned with what was supposed to be just 13 episodes, but the show was so popular that a total of seven more episodes were ordered. The expanded order came as the main stars found availability in their schedules to devote more time to the ABC sitcom (also via TV Line). 

The third season of "The Conners" premiered in October 2020 and aired a whopping 20 episodes. It's reasonable to expect that there will be at least 20 episodes for Season 4, as well.

The cast of "The Conners" includes John Goodman as Dan Conner, Sara Gilbert as Darlene Conner, Lecy Goranson as Becky Conner-Healy, Michael Fishman as D.J. Conner, Laurie Metcalf as "Aunt" Jackie Harris, Emma Kenney as Harris Conner-Healy, Ames McNamara as Mark Conner-Healy, Jayden Rey as Mary Conner and Jay R. Ferguson as Darlene's boyfriend, Ben.

For the Season 3 finale, a cast member who hadn't been seen since Season 1 returned. Maya Lynne Robinson, who plays D.J. Conner's wife Geena, departed the show after one season for a new role on the CBS series "The Unicorn." Geena's absence was explained by saying she was redeployed to Afghanistan. But with "The Unicorn" now canceled by CBS (per Variety), it's possible that D.J. Conner's army lieutenant wife could be back in Lanford for good.

"The Conners" is also known for its rotating cast of guest stars, including Katey Sagal as Dan Conner's girlfriend, Louise, and Rene Rosado as Becky Conner's baby daddy, Emilio. Season 3 also welcomed big-name guests stars such as "Beverly Hills 90210" alum Brian Austin Green and NFL star Aaron Rodgers. Everyone from Candice Bergen to Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne has guest starred on 'The Conners," so there's no reason to think Season 4 won't include familiar faces.

In an interview with Sarah Scoop, Gilbert dished on her dream guest stars. "I'm gonna be thinking of a million people," she said. "Judi Dench, Octavia Spencer, going for the best. It's like, there's, there are so many."

"The Conners" started out with the shocking death of family matriarch Roseanne (Roseanne Barr). Since that time, viewers have watched as members of the family struggle with parenthood, dating, money problems, addiction struggles, and working class woes before and during the pandemic. From Darlene refusing to move out of her childhood home so she can help her dad pay his mortgage, to the family staging an intervention for alcoholic Becky, the fictional family has stuck together.

Sara Gilbert told Sarah Scoop it is important that the show continues to address real-world issues and "be in touch with the problem and then hopefully be able to take some action ... Something that I love about our show is that we get to address the fact that this is obviously a fictional group that represents a lot of people."

Gilbert added that the Conner family members are "very kind, smart, intelligent, funny, good people that cannot break the cycle of poverty, and cannot break through the levels of how unfair things can be in this country."