Summary

• Chirs Rock chose to end Everybody Hates Chris on his own terms before the network could cancel it.
• Declining ratings and a time slot change led to the show's cancellation after four successful seasons.
• The series finale pays homage to The Sopranos with a cliffhanger ending, leaving viewers satisfied.

"Why did Everybody Hates Chris end?" is a common question for fans of The CW sitcom. Everybody Hates Chris is the hilarious semi-autobiographical series created by Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi that's based loosely on Rock's experiences growing up in Brooklyn, New York in the 1980s. A pun on Everybody Loves Raymond, Everybody Hates Chris is a nod to how Chris, played by Tyler James Williams, feels like a headache for everyone in his life. He doesn't fit in at the upper-class school his parents send him to and often gets into trouble around his neighborhood.

Stand-up comedian Chris Rock narrates the series, and it's his energetic voice and writing that drives the show into something relatable, heartwarming, and extremely funny. Terry Crews and Tichina Arnold also star as Chris' father Julius and mother Rochelle, respectively, a pair of well-meaning but overbearing parents. Premiering in 2005, Everybody Hates Chris lasted for four seasons, which have a combined 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's curious why the show didn't go on.

Chris Rock Canceled Everybody Hates Chris To End The Show On His Own Terms

The Show Was Declining In Ratings And Rock Wanted To End It Before The CW Did

Chris Rock is the one who ended up deciding that Everybody Hates Chris would end after season 4. Before the network could cancel his show, Rock ended things on his own terms. He had already assumed he would not be seeing season 5, and so he concluded season 4 with Chris dropping out of school (as the real Rock did), a finale that is suitable for a series ending but also provided a way back into the story if the show ever chose to continue (via TV Series Finale).

Everybody Hates Chris had been declining in ratings since its first season, which opened with 7.8 million viewers for the premiere and 5.65 million viewers for the second episode (via Howard University). The show premiered on UPN, but a year later, UPN and the WB had combined to form The CW, and it's that merger that Tyler James Williams blames on the downward trajectory of the show, saying in the Opening Act podcast, via Blavity,

"Once that merger with the CW happened, our numbers started tanking, like all the other Black shows that were on UPN, so we were very much so told that nobody was watching it..."

In 2009, The CW network president Dawn Ostroff announced that The CW would be canceling some series, including Everybody Hates Chris, and in a press release said (via Inside TV),

"[The CW] decided to stop developing comedies a few years ago. Maybe at some point in the future we’ll make a go of it again."

Rock did not need to hear any of this to know that his show was on the chopping block. Everybody Hates Chris was moved from Thursday to the Friday night "death slot" for its fourth season, a sure sign that the network did not have much faith in the show, and Rock responded, ending the series how he wanted.

The Everybody Hates Chris Finale Has A Big Nod To The Sopranos

Chris Ends His Series Run Just Like Tonny Soprano

Everybody Hates Chris ends on a satisfying note for everyone, and to the well-versed viewer, it also offers a nod to The Sopranos. Famously, The Sopranos ended abruptly with a cut to black, with no definitive answer to what happens to Tony and his family. In Everybody Hates Chris, Chris and his family are sitting around a restaurant table (like in The Sopranos) while "Livin' on a Prayer" plays in the background ("Don't Stop Believin'" in The Sopranos). Julius arrives, holding the results of Chris' GED test, and the screen cuts to black before he can reveal them.

Rock and the other actors have been mum about the ending since it aired, but in a since-deleted Twitter Q&A in 2020, Williams finally revealed if Chris passed or not (via CheatSheet),

"Yes, he does and drops out [of high school]. This starts the journey to comedy."

It's the same ending Rock had to his high school experience and even if Williams did not provide an answer, the uplifting tone of Everybody Hates Chris suggested things were always going to end well for the family.