The cast of Everybody Loves Raymond will bow out on CBS

The 210th episode about life in the dysfunctional Barone family, starring stand-up comic Ray Romano in the title role, will be screened by CBS.

The show is the top-rated sitcom in the US, with an average audience of 17 million viewers each week.

However, Romano has warned that unlike other sitcoms such as Friends, the show will not finish on a dramatic note.

Romano does not expect his series to end with the size of audience enjoyed by the US's all-time favourite sitcom Seinfeld's final episode in 1998 or last year's Friends finale.

"Take the Seinfeld finale's 80 million and subtract the audience for the Friends finale, 50 million, and that's our finale: 30 million viewers," he joked recently.

Few sitcoms

"The expectation is for it to have a little emotional resonance, but it won't be overly done. We just want it to be funny."

Ray Romano is one of the US's most popular comics

Some of the show's characters, as well as many of the episode plots, were based on relatives of Romano.

Like his TV character, Romano has twin sons, a daughter and a brother who retired from the NYPD.

After Friends and psychiatrist comedy Frasier finished last year, Everybody Loves Raymond is one of US TV's longest running sitcoms.

It is the only sitcom in the US Nielsen ratings top 10, with Charlie Sheen vehicle Two and a Half Men the only other comedy in the top 20.