Dr. House will see no more patients after this spring — at least not on our televisions.
Fox announced on Wednesday that the long-running medical drama starring Hugh Laurie as a brilliant, curmudgeonly doctor will end after this season.
“After much deliberation, the producers of ‘House M.D.’ have decided that this season of the show, the eighth, should be the last,” executive producers David Shore, Katie Jacobs and Hugh Laurie said in a statement. “By April this year they will have completed 177 episodes, which is about 175 more than anyone expected back in 2004. The decision to end the show now, or ever, is a painful one … but now that time is drawing to a close.”
The drama continues to draw an average of 9.8 million viewers, but cost is certainly a factor in the decision to end the series.
“The producers have always imagined House as an enigmatic creature; he should never be the last one to leave the party,” the producers’ statement continues. “How much better to disappear before the music stops, while there is still some promise and mystique in the air.”
