<P> Kerry Washington stars as Olivia Pope, a former White House Communications Director who leaves to start her own crisis management firm, Pope and Associates, where she works to keep the secrets and protect the public images of the country's most powerful and elite . On staff at the new firm are fresh - faced lawyer Quinn Perkins (Katie Lowes); smooth talking litigator Harrison Wright (Columbus Short); investigator Abby Whelan (Darby Stanchfield); and computer hacker with a CIA past Huck (Guillermo Diaz). The show also focuses on President of the United States Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn); First Lady Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young); White House Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene (Jeff Perry); Vice President and eventual presidential candidate Sally Langston (Kate Burton); U.S. Attorney David Rosen (Joshua Malina); Head of NSA, Jake Ballard (Scott Foley); chairwoman Elizabeth North (Portia de Rossi); activist Marcus Walker (Cornelius Smith Jr .); and head of B613 Eli Pope (Joe Morton). </P> <P> During the course of the series, 124 episodes of Scandal aired, including one special . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Season </Th> <Th_colspan="2"> Episodes </Th> <Th_colspan="2"> Originally aired </Th> <Th_colspan="2"> Nielsen ratings </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> First aired </Th> <Th> Last aired </Th> <Th> Rank </Th> <Th> Viewers (in millions) </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> </Td> <Td_colspan="2"> 7 </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> April 5, 2012 (2012 - 04 - 05) </Td> <Td> May 17, 2012 (2012 - 05 - 17) </Td> <Td> 62 </Td> <Td> 8.21 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> </Td> <Td_colspan="2"> 22 </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> September 27, 2012 (2012 - 09 - 27) </Td> <Td> May 16, 2013 (2013 - 05 - 16) </Td> <Td> 47 </Td> <Td> 8.46 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> </Td> <Td_colspan="2"> 18 </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> October 3, 2013 (2013 - 10 - 03) </Td> <Td> April 17, 2014 (2014 - 04 - 17) </Td> <Td> 13 </Td> <Td> 12.00 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> </Td> <Td_colspan="2"> 22 </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> September 25, 2014 (2014 - 09 - 25) </Td> <Td> May 14, 2015 (2015 - 05 - 14) </Td> <Td> 8 </Td> <Td> 12.66 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> 5 </Td> <Td_colspan="2"> 21 </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> September 24, 2015 (2015 - 09 - 24) </Td> <Td> May 12, 2016 (2016 - 05 - 12) </Td> <Td> 16 </Td> <Td> 10.68 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> 6 </Td> <Td_colspan="2"> 16 </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> January 26, 2017 (2017 - 01 - 26) </Td> <Td> May 18, 2017 (2017 - 05 - 18) </Td> <Td> 30 </Td> <Td> 8.16 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> 7 </Td> <Td_colspan="2"> 18 </Td> <Td_colspan="1"> October 5, 2017 (2017 - 10 - 05) </Td> <Td> April 19, 2018 (2018 - 04 - 19) </Td> <Td> TBA </Td> <Td> TBA </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Season </Th> <Th_colspan="2"> Episodes </Th> <Th_colspan="2"> Originally aired </Th> <Th_colspan="2"> Nielsen ratings </Th> </Tr>

How many episodes in series 7 of scandle