Jesse Tyler Ferguson is explaining why he’s glad the Modern Family spinoff series fell through.

When the Emmy-winning comedy series came to an end in April 2020, a spinoff centered around Mitch (Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) as they moved to Missouri was in the works, but ABC ended up passing on the idea.

During the Thursday (March 5) episode of his Dinner’s On Me podcast, Jesse explained why he’s glad the spinoff didn’t happen.

Keep reading to find out more…“Modern Family ended and then we had a pandemic, you know. I was so excited for this next chapter of my life, and then it was like, everyone go inside,” Jesse explained, noting that producers “brewing this idea of maybe doing a Modern Family spinoff with [him and Stonestreet].”

“I was interested,” Jesse continued. “But I was also supposed to do this play in New York,” he explained, “It sort of felt like, as the reality of, maybe the spinoff was actually going to happen, I literally felt like, Oh my god, I want to date other people.”

After playing Mitchell Pritchett for more than a decade, Jesse said that he was ready to explore other roles, noting that he wanted to “feel what it’s like not to do that.”

In an interview from 2024, Eric shared his idea for a possible Modern Family special.