'Shameless' season 8 finally gets the green light with Emmy Rossum excited to reprise her role

The dysfunctional Gallagher family isn't going anywhere with Showtime officially inking a new season order for "Shameless'" eighth year.

Following a salary stand-off with main cast Emmy Rossum and its eventual resolution, the clan is confirmed to be coming back for another outing next year. The announcement came moments after season 7 wrapped up with post-credits tag that asks viewers to "come back next year." In its seven seasons running, "Shameless" has become Showtime's longest-running original scripted series and it seems like the hype for it is just getting better and better every year.

The dramedy's most recent episode posted a significant increase in viewership ratings, which makes it the season's highest with 1.72 million people tuned in on the Live+Same Day at 9 p.m. The number is 38% more than its previous outing holder, the season premiere, which garnered 1.24 million hits. This is also a boost from last year's finale which garnered only 163 million viewers. All in all, the family-centric program is Showtime's most watched drama of the year, thus Showtime has opted to roll out its premiere offering in early 2017 instead.

With the potential that the "Shameless" season 7 capper has demonstrated, it is almost a no-brainer for Showtime to renew it for another year. But the process was not all that smooth given Rossum's debacle that had her demanding pay increase leveling and even going beyond that of co-star William H. Macy who plays clan patriarch, Frank.

The terms of the newly signed contract between Rossum and Warner Bros. Studio have not been made public and may remain that way. However, regardless of how it panned out, all seems to have been ironed out in a short period of time. The actress eventually took it to her official social media to announce that she is more than thrilled to reprise her role as Fiona moving forward in the show.

"Shameless" season 8 is scheduled to begin production by May of next year with a targeted rollout date sometime during the fall. The iteration will have 12 episodes.