The eighth season of Degrassi: The Next Generation premiered in Canada on October 5, 2008, concluded on August 30, 2009, and consists of twenty-two episodes (18 episodes, and 1 movie). Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian serial teen drama television series. Although only one school year passed in the story timeline since season six, season eight is set in the fall semester of the year in which it aired. Writers have been able to use a semi-floating timeline, so that the issues depicted are modern for their viewers. This season depicts the lives of a group of high school freshmen, juniors, seniors, and graduates as they deal with some of the challenges and issues young adults face such as sex, sexism, sexual identity, financial difficulties, drug use, mental disorders, cyberbullying, child molestation, stress, hostage situations, racism, and psychological abuse. Thirteen actors are added to the ensemble cast, while fourteen cast members have either left the series or been dropped from the main cast to recurring roles. The season focuses heavily on the new generation of students at Degrassi Community School, although it included storylines about those who have graduated and gone on to university.

Season eight aired Sundays at 7:30 p.m. on CTV, a Canadian television network. Episodes were repeated on CTV's sister cable speciality network, MuchMusic, on Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m. In the United States, the season began on October 10, 2008 on The N, a cable channel spun off from Noggin's teen programming block of the same name. Unlike seasons six and seven, which premiered in the US, this season's premiere episode was broadcast in Canada first, with the second episode airing a week later; in the US, however, both episodes aired together as an hour-long special. As well as airing on television, the season's episodes were also streamed on the websites of CTV and The N, as well as iTunes.

Production for the season began in May 2008 at Epitome Pictures' studios in Toronto, Ontario, and were completed in late October 2008. The final episodes of the season were filmed in part in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, Beverly Hills, Venice Beach and Malibu and were written and directed by Stefan Brogren, who plays Archie "Snake" Simpson.

This is also the final season to feature (Drake) playing Jimmy Brooks, due to him wanting to focus on his music career.

The eighth season features twenty-four actors who receive star billing, with eleven of them returning from the previous season. Joining the main cast are Evan Williams (Kelly), Judy Jiao (Leia), Jajube Mandiela (Chantay), Samantha Munro (Anya), A.J. Saudin (Connor), Sam Earle (K.C.), Aislinn Paul (Clare), Melinda Shankar (Alli), Raymond Ablack (Sav), Natty Zavitz (Bruce the Moose), Scott Paterson (Johnny), Jordan Hudyma (Blue) and Argiris Karras (Riley), replacing Aubrey Graham (Jimmy), Stacey Farber (Ellie), Lauren Collins (Paige), Shenae Grimes (Darcy), Mike Lobel (Jay), Mazin Elsadig (Damian), Amanda Stepto (Spike), Melissa DiMarco (Hatzilakos) and Adamo Ruggiero (Marco).

The following are credited with the main cast in the special's original two-hour broadcast:

Former series regulars who appear this season in recurring or guest roles include:

Kevin Jubinville appears in a recurring role as Principal "Shep" Shepard. Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith return as themselves in the special Degrassi Goes Hollywood, along with other celebrity cameos from Kelly Carlson, Vivica A. Fox, Pete Wentz, Cassadee Pope, Tim Rozon and Perez Hilton.