Throughout its six-year run, Drunk History won both fan praise and critical acclaim. It was nominated for 17 Emmy Awards, three of which are for the upcoming awards show in 2020. It was officially renewed by Comedy Central for Season 7 in the summer of 2019. New narrations were filming when production had to shut down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020. It's unclear if any of these filmed pieces will air in some manner at a future date. 

The cancelation confirmation comes on the heels of a new path for Comedy Central, which is expected to focus on scripted animation. With the success of South Park and the highly anticipated reboots of The Ren & Stimpy Show and Beavis and Butt-Head on the horizon, the format of Drunk History was no longer in line with the future of the network.

Deadline also reported that the expensive production for Drunk History was also a likely factor in the show's abrupt ending. The re-enactment scenes for each episode, which included costuming and elaborate sets, were apparently costly to create.

At the time of publication, Derek Waters had not publicly commented on the cancellation.