Why Isn’t ‘Shameless’ On Tonight? Season 9 Return Date Revealed

Don’t expect a new episode of “Shameless” on Sunday night or any Sunday night for the rest of the year. Season 9 of the Showtime dramedy is being split into two parts, so it’s on midseason hiatus.

Season 9, episode 7 served as the fall finale. “Shameless” Season 9, episode 8, the midseason premiere, won’t air until Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019. That means fans have three long months before the Gallaghers return to our screens.

In the last episode, Fiona (Emmy Rossum) was reeling after discovering Ford (Richard Flood) had a secret wife and child. She had crashed her car, and she still had to deal with the fact that she owed her business partners money that she didn’t have.

After Debbie (Emma Kenney) brought Fiona to the hospital to get cleaned up, she helped her find a few criminals to make her car disappear so she could claim it was stolen. She also helped Fiona get revenge on Ford by shoving his head in a billboard while Fiona shot his bare rear end with a paintball gun.

Debbie couldn’t, however, help with money. Fiona had to sell her building to her business partner for exactly how much she owed to the bank. She made no profit and owns no property. Her credit is intact, but she had to move back home. She ended the night by drinking vodka by herself in the backyard.

Elsewhere, Lip (Jeremy Allen White) reunited with his drunken bridesmaid, Tami (Kate Miner). Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) learned that all of the bad stuff in his life will actually help him get into Westpoint despite bad grades, and Kev (Steve Howey) and V (Shanola Hampton) agreed to look into adoption.

Frank (William H. Macy), of course, has gotten himself into more trouble. He has been hooking up with an unstable therapist, Ingrid (Katey Sagal). He encouraged her to go off her meds again, and he even seemingly managed to convince her caretaker ex-husband to stop looking after her. That should be a disaster when “Shameless” Season 9 returns.

The 2019 episodes will also include another major goodbye after Ian (Cameron Monaghan) departed in episode 6. Emmy Rossum announced earlier this year that she plans to leave “Shameless” at the end of the season. Producers have confirmed that Fiona will not die, but fans will have to tune in to find out how she’ll decide to leave her family.