Degrassi: The Next Generation (renamed to Degrassi for seasons 10 to 14) is a Canadian teen drama television series created by Yan Moore and Linda Schuyler. It is the fourth series in the Degrassi franchise and a revival of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High. It premiered on CTV on October 14, 2001, and concluded on August 2, 2015, on MTV Canada.

The series centers around a new ensemble cast of students at the fictional Degrassi Community School who face challenges such as sex, teen pregnancy, bullying, date rape, drug abuse, body image, homosexuality, domestic violence, gang violence, self-injury, suicide, abortion, mental disorders, and others. Various characters from the previous two series also returned as adults in recurring or guest roles.

The series was created by Linda Schuyler and Yan Moore, who was previously the head writer of Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High. This was the first series to feature no involvement from Kit Hood, who was a co-creator and director of all previous Degrassi series. It was produced by Epitome Pictures (now a subsidiary of WildBrain) in association with Bell Media.

The series premiered to mixed reviews, with some critics expressing doubts about whether the show would achieve the same impact as its predecessors. However, it would ultimately garner both critical and commercial success similar to its forerunners. It received favourable reviews from critics of Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, and AfterElton.

In its initial years, the show was frequently the most watched domestic drama series in Canada. In the United States, it became the highest-rated show on Noggin's teen block The N. The series was also moved to MuchMusic in Canada.

The thirteenth season reverted to a weekly schedule and, part way through, it had moved to MTV Canada, where it aired until its final episode on August 2, 2015, after fourteen seasons. The show was followed by Degrassi: Next Class, which followed the remaining juniors from the show's later seasons as well as introducing newer ones, in 2016.

Production

Concept

The Degrassi universe was created in 1979 by Playing With Time, a production company owned by former schoolteacher Linda Schuyler and her partner Kit Hood. The franchise began with The Kids of Degrassi Street, which was spawned out of three half-hour short films, and came to prominence with the critical and commercial successes of Degrassi Junior High, which debuted in 1987, and Degrassi High, which premiered in 1989. The two series followed an ensemble cast of students attending the titular schools as they confronted various issues. It became an international sensation, with the shows experiencing upwards of a million viewers on average in Canada, and received numerous accolades. The telemovie School's Out, which concluded the franchise, aired in 1992.

Schuyler and original Degrassi series head writer Yan Moore began developing a new television drama in 1999, following a reunion of the original Degrassi cast on the CBC series Jonovision. As the months progressed, they began to think about what had happened to the original characters to develop a school-reunion theme. However, they decided that a series would not work effectively if based around adults instead of children. Moore realized that the character Emma Nelson, born to character Christine "Spike" Nelson at the end of Degrassi Junior Highs second season, would soon be entering junior high school, and development for the series took a new direction by focusing on Emma and her school experiences. Schuyler's husband Stephen Stohn suggested Degrassi: The Next Generation as the name for the new sequel series, which borrowed from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Pitching

Schuyler pitched the new series to a number of television networks, with CTV and CBC (the franchise's former network) vying as the top contenders. CTV won through, offering $10 million for a fifteen-episode season. The project was greenlit in May 2000, with the originally planned reunion episode serving as the pilot to the new series. Soon after, Degrassi crew members attended a conference in New York to find an American partner for the show.