Although there was much speculation that “New Girl” will end in Season 6, Fox has decided to renew the beloved comedy series for one final season. Lamorne Morris, who played Winston in the series, was among the few who confirmed the renewal.
However, Deadline said the show came close to not getting a renewal:
“While the show did not officially get the ax, it came very, very close to it. I hear that was because of various reasons (for instance, star Zooey Deschanel is on maternity leave having just given birth to her second child), most if not all main cast members would not be able to return to work until the fall. With the logistical challenges, no space on the midseason schedule and a Season 6 finale that tied in a bow so many loose ends, the network leaned heavily toward not going with a seventh season.”
However, creator Liz Meriwether proposed that Fox should reconsider if the seventh season would experience a time-jump, which is three years from the last season. Jezebel said that although Season 7 will be a short eight episodes only, it will focus on “major milestones for all main characters over the period of one year, including a big one in the series finale.”
Executive producer David Finkel explained further, "Obviously, Jess (Zooey Deschanel) and Nick (Jake Johnson) ended where they ended and we want to look at that and figure out how to make that play in some more interesting way. I think there’s still stuff that has to be done with all the characters. In a world where Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Cece (Hannah Simone) and Winston and Jess have all sort of found the thing that they've been looking for, at least in their work lives, that Nick’s still on his road is interesting. I think there's a lot of fun to be had there."
