We may be finding out sooner rather than later who is the mother of How I Met Your Mother. Sooner, certainly, than the network would like.

It all depends how well they can get along without Jason Segel, who has been quoted as saying he will quit the show after this upcoming eighth season. Segel plays one of the show’s central characters, Marshall Eriksen, alongside Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders.

Segel’s thriving movie career has run the gamut from The Muppets to The Five Year Engagement.

“It’s great to do some ‘Rated R’ stuff again,” he recently told Kurier.at, “because I’ve been playing the nice guy for quite a long time now. That’s why I’m gonna quit How I Met Your Mother after the eighth season.

“I’ve hit my 30s, the TV show that I’ve been doing for eight years is coming to its natural end, I’m feeling much more like, ‘OK, now it’s time for Phase Three.’ It’s time I think.”

CBS president Nina Tassler would beg to differ. “Negotiations are ongoing,” she told critics this week at the TV press tour, before the Segel quotes surfaced.

“They had an incredible year last year,” she said. “We’ve got a great relationship with (creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays) ... They know we want the show to come back next year. We are having conversations right now about extending it.

“We’re not there yet in terms of resolving the season. But we’re in early conversations, and we’re pretty optimistic.”

The eighth season of How I Met Your Mother is set to air in September.