'The Office' Finale, No Steve Carell: Season 9 Spoilers, Series Ends May 16 Without Michael Scott Reunion

According to executive producer Greg Daniels, The Office will conclude without a return of Steve Carell's character Michael Scott. The award-winning show is currently in its ninth and final season, and is set to end in a final good-bye on May 16. There are apparently some attempts to extend the episode and make it even more special for fans, too.

During a conference call with reporters about the finale, Daniels said:

"After attempting to beat that (British) ending in a number of different ways, we ended up doing something very similar ... We are trying to get more time and the network (NBC) is being very creative about scraping some more time without us having to start the finale at a weird time that will cause half the audience to miss the first 10 minutes. We are still hopeful of getting slightly more than one hour."

The Office saw a lot of success and launched the careers of some of its main stars. In 2011, Steve Carell left the show and viewership has since dropped from 8 million to about 5 million viewers.

"I think Steve felt, and I agree, that the 'Goodbye, Michael' episode was his goodbye and he didn't want to overshadow the ending that all the other characters deserved," said Daniel.

This final season has shown some tense moments between the show's main couple Jim and Pam, played by John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer. In his conference call, Daniels tried not to give any season 9 spoilers away, but he did say:

"My hope is that people will treat the last several episodes as the finale and not force us to do everything in the last episode. We didn't want there to be such anxiety over Jim and Pam that you could think of nothing else in the last episode."

So what are you expecting to happen when The Office concludes on May 16?