A touching final season finale for New Girl has aired in America but how long have British viewers got until they find out whether Jess, Nick, Schmidt and Winston get to live happily ever after? CONTAINS SPOILERS

There have been 146 episodes, seven seasons and a host of pranks, but time is up for New Girl – across the pond, the last ever episode has just aired.

Many believed (including, it seems, the scriptwriters) that season six was the last ever series for the US comedy but it returned for a final series to offer closure to fans desperate to know what the future would hold for Jess, Nick, Winston, Schmidt, Cece and Aly.

The finale of season six effectively wrapped up the storylines in case there was no season seven – Nick and Jess got back together, Cece and Schmidt discovered they were expecting a baby and Winston finally called his Dad after help from Aly – but series creator Liz Meriwether was keen to take the gang on one final adventure.

Season seven began in the US on April 10 and ended on May 15 with an hour-long finale – the last series will be shown on E4, but no transmission date for the eight-episode run has been announced yet. It's likely that New Girl's seventh series will begin airing within the next few weeks.

What we do know is that the last series will pick up three years after the season six finale as Cece and Schmidt get used to a different kind of dynamic at home as the latter opts to be a stay-at-home dad and parenthood is on the horizon for the now-married Aly and Winston. And Winston's dad is introduced, too (and he's Curb Your Enthusiasm's JB Smoove).

Whatever happens over the eight episodes, Zooey Deschanel, who plays Jess, has promised that fans of the show won't be disappointed: 'I'm really happy we had a final season and we knew it while we were shooting it. I feel like we covered a lot of our classic sort of scenarios in the last season. The writers did a good job. There are a lot of Easter eggs,' she said.

In addition to the main cast of Deschanel, Max Greenfield (Schmidt), Jake Johnson (Nick), Lamorne Morris (Winston), Hannah Simone (Cece) and Nasim Pedrad (Aly), the final season will feature a lots of familiar faces who have popped up in New Girl in the past.

So get ready to welcome back original cast member Damon Wayans Jr (Coach), Nelson Franklin (Robby), David Walton (Sam), Rebecca Reid (Nadia), Sam Richardson (Dunston) and Dermot Mulroney (Russell), as well as Jamie Lee Curtis and Rob Reiner as Jess's parents Joan and Bob Day.

Fingers crossed that Tran, Nick' silent park bench counsellor (played by Ralph Ahn) will also be back. Everyone needs a Tran to vent to.

How to play True American as seen in New Girl

The concept:

True American involves players taking turns to win moves so that they can navigate a series of items such as chairs, cushions and tables to escape the floor of molten lava. In the middle of the floor is a castle made of a bottle of alcohol and beer cans. As you arrive at the castle, you take a beer. Once all the beers have been removed, the first player to reach the bottle of alcohol, finish their beer and take a swig from the bottle wins. It goes without saying, you need to be 18 to play this game. And you should drink responsibly. In fact really, you shouldn't play this game at all, because it's impossible to play it if you're being responsible. I mean you can substitute the alcohol for water bottles but, you know, this is unlikely to be a popular option.

The rules:

Are very complicated and never really explained. Teams are optional and picked at random. The castle represents the king (the bottle of alcohol) and the beers are the pawns, or Soldiers of the Secret Order. The pawns radiate in lines from the King.

On the floor there are four zones and an alternate zone is a 'crazy' zone – trails of items such as chairs and tables are scattered through the zones and the floor is molten lava and cannot be touched. The castle is in the middle of all the zones.

How to start:

Everyone grabs a beer from the centre of the room and picks an object to stand on. Players move around the game area in a clockwise direction and that player whose turn it is always moves one space while other players must 'win' their move. The player in play has three ways to provide the other players with a way to win their move which could be (a) guessing a common trait – picking two people or things that have something in common and the correct guess as to what that something is means a player can move (b) doing the count – players hold up a number of fingers on their head at the same time and those who show the same number as the player whose turn it is can move (c) completing a quote.

How to win:

The first player to reach the King after all the pawns have been removed and who takes a swig from the bottle, wins.

How not to win:

Touch the floor or get caught without a beer or with only an empty beer and you lose.

Other rules to bear in mind:

• When a player shouts 'all trash belongs…' everyone else must shout 'in the junk yard!' before throwing their empty cans into a designated receptacle.

• If at any point a player shouts 'JFK!' it means everyone must yell back 'FDR' and finish their beer.

• If someone shouts 'Donald Trump!' all players must shout back 'build the wall!' and drink their beer.