CBS wants to give the team behind How I Met Your Mother some advance notice about an end date so the show can actually live up to its title. So although Season 8 hasn’t even started filming yet, the network is already talking with producer 20th Century Fox TV about Season 9.

Variety reports the network and studio have had some preliminary discussions about giving the show another season. Talks have started earlier than usual so the show’s creative team can have extra time to either work toward an ending or tease out another year — and also because none of the show’s five stars nor creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays is under contract beyond the 2012-13 season.

How I Met Your Mother had a ratings resurgence last season, averaging 9.7 million viewers and a 4.1 rating in adults 18-49, up from 8.8 million and 3.5 in 2010-11. Its audience also has the youngest median age of any CBS show, and with Two and a Half Men moving to Thursdays in the fall, it’s now by far the longest-running member of the network’s Monday comedy block.

As is the case with any long-running show, though, the price tag is going up. Each member of the cast — Josh Radnor, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel, Alyson Hannigan and Neil Patrick Harris — has enjoyed success outside the show as well, and it stands to reason they’d want sizable raises to return for a ninth year. Bays and Thomas also have a new show, The Goodwin Games, set for midseason at FOX.

What do you think? Should How I Met Your Mother wrap things up this season, or does the show have another year in it after that? (Source)