How Did ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ End? Revisiting the Controversial Finale

It’s hard to believe that Everybody Loves Raymond premiered almost 30 years ago.

The beloved series ran for nine seasons on CBS from 1996 to 2005 and was one of the top sitcoms of the ‘90s alongside Seinfeld and Friends. It starred Ray Romano as Raymond Barone, a sports journalist living on Long Island with his dysfunctional family, which includes his wife, Debra (Patricia Heaton), and their three kids; his nosy parents (Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts), who live across the street; and his jealous older brother, Robert (Brad Garrett).

Romano also served as an executive producer and incorporated several elements of his personal life into the show. During its time on air, the sitcom earned 69 Emmy nominations and 15 wins. It was CBS’ highest-rated sitcom since the ‘80s favorite Murphy Brown.

By its ninth season, Everybody Loves Raymond was still wildly popular amongst fans and pulling in strong ratings. Despite this, the show came to a bittersweet end in May 2005 with a 30-minute episode, aptly titled “The Finale,” which continues to be controversial.

Everybody Loves Raymond’s 30th anniversary is being marked with a reunion special on CBS on Nov. 24, including the cast and creators.

So, how did Everybody Loves Raymond end? Here’s a look back at the show’s final episode and why it continues to be controversial.

What happened in the Everybody Loves Raymond finale?

The Everybody Loves Raymond series finale opened like any other episode, with Raymond being overly dramatic: this time about needing to get his adenoids removed.

In the next scene, the entire Barone family is gathered in the hospital waiting room, cracking jokes at Raymond’s expense as they wait for him to come out of surgery.

“Raymond has his adenoids out, the whole world has to stop,” Robert quips. “The only reason I’m here is because Ma knows I have the same blood type as him.”

This banter goes on for a few minutes before a nurse comes out to ask Debra if Raymond has any allergies to medicine that he neglected to tell the hospital about. The nurse then informs the Barone family that Raymond is having trouble coming out of anesthesia and his blood pressure has dropped.

What follows is an unusual display of vulnerability and tenderness for the family, as they fear for Raymond’s life.

Did Raymond die in the Everybody Loves Raymond finale?

The tense moment lasts no more than 30 seconds before a doctor comes out and tells them Raymond is fine. The family breathes a sigh of relief and quickly slips back into their usual dynamic, with Debra telling the group: “Now listen, what happened in there … Nobody. Tells. Ray.”

Later on in the episode, when Ray inevitably finds out about the incident, he reacts with his trademark dramatics, asking how long he was “dead” and convincing himself he might have some residual effects. When he realizes his family briefly thought they had lost him, he insists they tell him what went through their minds. The scene turns somber again as the Barones begrudgingly admit how much they love him.

In true Everybody Loves Raymond fashion, the final shot of the episode shows the whole family eating breakfast in Raymond and Debra’s kitchen. She remarks that it’s getting too crowded, and he responds: “I think we need to get a bigger table.” The camera then pulls back to take in the full scene before fading to black.

Showrunner Phil Rosenthal never intended to kill off Ray in the finale, but he did want fans to briefly think he could be dead.

“I wanted the audience to be scared to death,” he explained during an interview with the Television Academy Foundation. “What if that happened to someone in your family? That scare. You know what that’s like. Some people aren’t so lucky. Sometimes it’s not over in 30 seconds … It’s relatable.”

“He’s fine and he’s going to be okay,” Rosenthal added, noting, “but they had that real moment.”

He went on to explain how the second half of the finale was a “regular episode” of Everybody Loves Raymond. “Ray is of course going to find out … and all hell is going to break loose and we’re going to have that fun,” Rosenthal said, “but at the end, it was ‘How are we going to drive home the real point of the show?’ ”

What did fans think of Everybody Loves Raymond’s finale?

While some fans thought the Everybody Loves Raymond series finale was anticlimactic, the majority felt it stayed true to the spirit of the show, and that’s exactly what Rosenthal wanted.

“I thought, ‘What if we did more of a typical episode?’ ” he recalled. “We came into [the Barones] lives in the middle, what if we left in the middle?”

He also didn’t want an “eventized” finale that “destroyed” the foundation they built over the course of nine years.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to know that your friends and family are still there,” he said. “We go away, but they’re still there … it doesn’t have to end, families don’t always end.”

Additionally, Rosenthal was adamant that the episode be only 30 minutes long. “I don’t like the hour-long bloated thing that is only an hour long for the sake of being an hour long,” he said, adding that they released a short documentary, The Last Laugh, ahead of the finale to provide fans with even more closure.

Why did Everybody Loves Raymond end so abruptly?

The show’s final bow may have come as a surprise to fans, but Rosenthal had actually been planning it since midway through season 8.

During his interview with the Television Academy Foundation, he explained that he didn’t want the sitcom to drag on past its prime.

“I always thought that no show got better after seven years,” he said, noting that they were able to extend into an eighth season thanks to the storyline of Robert marrying Amy MacDougal, played by Rosenthal’s real-life wife, Monica Horan.

He had intended to wrap the series in season 8 and had already written the finale episode. However, CBS urged them to stay on for one more season, and Rosenthal compromised by agreeing to a 16-episode arc instead of the show’s usual full-season order.

Did Peter Boyle’s health play a factor in the decision to end the show?

There has also been speculation that Peter Boyle’s declining health played a role in the decision to end the show. The Emmy-winning actor, who portrayed Raymond’s grumpy father, Frank, died shortly after the show wrapped on Dec. 12, 2006.

He was 71 at the time of his death and had heart disease and multiple myeloma, a bone-marrow cancer. The late actor also suffered a heart attack on set during season 3, per CNN.

During an episode of the podcast Everybody Loves Raymond 360, writer and producer Tom Caltabiano revealed that the cast and crew “did not know” that Boyle was ill at the time, but noticed that he had lost weight and didn’t have as much stamina as he used to.

“In the later episodes, you can see that Peter just didn’t have the health or the strength,” he said. “That was a concern.”

What has Ray Romano said about Everybody Loves Raymond ending?

Romano wanted the show to end on a high note as well, and has shared a similar perspective to Rosenthal’s.

“You want to leave while it’s still funny, while people still want it,” he told Ellen DeGeneres ahead of season 9. “You know we’ve done 200 shows. At some point, you run out of dysfunction.”

However, the comedian has also called the ending “abrupt” and spoken candidly about how difficult it was for both him and his family to adjust to life without the show. “It came out of nowhere. It took us by surprise,” he told PEOPLE in December 2024.

Romano explained that his four children would visit him on set once a week, noting that one of his twin sons, Matt, was especially fond of the visits and struggled when the show ended.

“This was their world from 3 to 12, and then, it was just stopping abruptly,” he said. “It really caught us off guard that it would affect them that much, and then, that effect would stay with Matt a little bit.”

What has the cast said about an Everybody Loves Raymond reboot?

Most of the cast members are not interested in a reboot or spinoff, primarily due to the loss of their castmates. Roberts, who portrayed Raymond’s overbearing mom, died in 2016 at age 90, and the following year, Sawyer Sweeten, the child actor who played one of Raymond’s twin sons, died by suicide at just 19 years old.

“Peter [Boyle] and Doris [Roberts] and one of the kids — they’re no longer with us. We’re all heartbroken. They’re a big part of the show, the dynamic,” Romano told Variety in June 2025. “Without them, I don’t know what the dynamic is. We love the show too much, we respect it too much to even try to do it.”

Heaton agreed, adding: “To try to do it again without the cast members that we’ve lost would be a disservice to the show.”

Garrett shared a similar sentiment that same month, telling PEOPLE: “There is no show without the parents … They were the catalyst, and to do anything that would resemble that wouldn’t be right to the audiences or to the loyal fan base. And it was about those two families, and you can’t get around that.”

The cast is, however, reuniting for a 30th anniversary special, airing on CBS on Nov. 24. The special will be hosted by Romano and Rosenthal and will feature special appearances from Garrett, Heaton, Horan and more. It will also pay tribute to Boyle, Roberts and Sweeten.

“Twenty years since the show’s finale episode, audiences are invited back to the recreated Barone living room for an unforgettable evening with America’s favorite family,” CBS said in a statement.