‘I Am Jazz’ Canceled Or Renewed For Season 6?

Jazz Jennings and her family bid another goodbye this week when Season 5 of “I Am Jazz” aired its finale on Tuesday. While the network has yet to make an official announcement about the show’s fate, there’s reason to believe that the trans teen’s journey will be chronicled more in a follow-up installment.

In the finale, fans saw Jazz organizing her first Hands Day Camp, receiving a call from Dr. Marcie Bowers to not go skydiving, enjoying a hot air balloon ride with her family and finally deciding to not move out of her parents’ house. The latter was a seemingly long arc because Jazz has been so aggressive about her desire to get her own place and live independently in the previous episodes.

Jazz is also done with her bottom surgery, but she’s scheduled to go back to the operating room for one final revision/cosmetic procedure. Apart from her medical journey, Jazz got to experience her first ever romantic relationship with Philadelphia native Ahmir Steward. However, the LGBT advocate realized that she needed to grow with other people, so she told her beau in the penultimate episode that they should have a “no commitment” relationship for now.

Season 5 went by so fast that some fans voiced their concern on Twitter. When one user told Jazz that the season was way too short, the trans teen pointed out that it’s actually the longest one they filmed so far. The freshman season had 11 episodes, while Season 2, 3 and 4 had 8 episodes each. Season 5 is indeed the longest with 12 episodes.

Meanwhile, when Jazz tweeted that she hopes her fans enjoyed Season 5, many couldn’t help but ask her if there’s going to be another season. Jazz, of course, does not have an answer for now. TLC is also mum on the issue. Season 5 was actually confirmed in August of last year, so it’s very unlikely for the network to announce the show’s renewal this early.

However, there’s a good reason for fans to believe that the show will continue on. Season 5 apparently did better in terms of ratings than the previous installment. Season 4 only raked in decent ratings as the show saw a decrease in viewership last year. But things changed this year when Jazz’s bottom surgery was featured on the show. The series earned slightly above average ratings, as per ShowBuzz Daily.

The previous season managed to capture 0.22 million ratings while the recently concluded installment has gathered 0.33 million. This is a significant improvement for the “I Am Jazz” series and it is evident on how it jumped from being No. 42 on the Top 50 Original Cable Telecasts last year to being No. 11 this year. Based on this alone, it’s very unlikely for the show to get canceled.

But then again the show’s renewal would largely depend on Jazz’s decision to continue filming. Now that she’s done with her surgeries, she’s already looking into her future. In a recent interview with People, she revealed that she’s excited to go to college and Harvard is one of her top choices. It would be a bit hard for Jazz to commit to the show once she starts college, but hopefully TLC can find a way to make this work.