Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 7)

Degrassi: The Next Generation (season 7)

The seventh season of Degrassi: The Next Generation commenced airing in Canada on 14 January 2008, concluded on 23 June 2008, and consists of twenty-four episodes. Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian serial teen drama television series. Season seven takes place during the second semester of the school year that began in season six, and continues to depict the lives of a group of high school sophomores, juniors, seniors and college freshmen as they deal with some of the challenges and issues young adults face, such as violence, relationships, drug abuse, cancer, rape, and HIV. The story writers have been able to use a semi-floating timeline, so that, although the school year took two years to air, the series was always set in the current year. Production took place in Toronto, Ontario between April and December 2007.

Season seven aired Mondays at 7:30 p.m. (7:00 p.m. in Quebec) on CTV, a Canadian terrestrial television network. In the United States it aired Fridays at 8:00 p.m. on The N, a digital cable network aimed at teenagers and young adults. Season seven premiered in the US three months before it began broadcasting in Canada, on 5 October 2007. In total sixteen episodes aired in the US before they did Canada. Further to being broadcast on television, episodes were made available for free streaming on CTV's website; registered users of the Canadian and US iTunes Stores are also able to purchase and download the season for playback on home computers and certain iPods. The second Degrassi dedicated soundtrack, Music from Degrassi: The Next Generation, was released 9 December 2008.

In addition to the twenty-four regular episodes, two "special episodes" were produced, not part of the Degrassi continuity. In the U.S Bust a move part 1 and 2 were formed together to form"Degrassi Spring Break Movie. The first, "Degrassi in Kenya" depicted the cast members travelling to Africa to assist the building of a school. It aired 18 October 2007 on MTV Canada, and 14 March 2008 on The N. The second, "Degrassi of the Dead", was a Halloween special, and featured the characters being turned into zombies. It aired on 26 October 2007 on The N, and four days later on CTV.

Viewing figures for season seven were not as high as previous seasons; by the twelfth episode, figures were down to 314,000 viewers, a 46% decrease from the season premiere which was watched by 585,000 viewers. Despite the decrease in viewers, however, reviews for the season were of praise, rather than criticism.