‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 8 spoilers: Season 9 pickup near complete

There’s some great news breaking late Friday night for anyone who considers “How I Met Your Mother” to be among their favorite shows: a season 9 renewal is now all but complete, based on some very tense negotiations that went down to the wire.

According to a new report from Deadline, what actually comes as a little bit of a surprise is that up until the last minute, there were some major fears that a deal was not actually going to get done between all of the parties involved. What was the snagging point? The website’s sources claim that it was, as many expected, Jason Segel who was the lone holdout among the cast until he changed his literally over the past 24 hours.

We haven’t heard anything suggesting that it was money that was the primary issue here, as it was instead that Segel wanted to ensure that he had the time open in his schedule in order to continue what is a very busy and blossoming film career. After all, it is understandable that there would be a desire to do other things after being a part of the same show for eight seasons, and we have heard from sources close to the show that scheduling was a bigger issue than the bottom line (though there were some discussions about salary that were nonetheless had).

So what made the actor change his mind? The Deadline report suggests that it may have been ultimately the strong friendships developed among the cast, who are all close even when the cameras are not rolling. that helped to ensure that the series would move forward into 2014. It is all but assured that season 9 will be the final one for the series, as executive producers Craig Thomas and Carter Bays had only mapped out two possible endings for the show depending on whether this or next year would be the time to drop the curtain on the search for Ted’s future wife.

If you want to read some more scoop about “How I Met Your Mother” season 8, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: CBS