TV Show News

HOUSE M.D. has been Canceled: Season 8 is Last Season

Hugh Laurie, House M.D.

House M.D. has been canceled. House: Season 8 will be the last season of the Fox Network TV Show. The Cancelation of House M.D. was announced today by TV series stars and producer Hugh Laurie and producers David Shore, Katie Jacobs.

On the decision to cancel House M.D.:

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The network has granted creator David Shore’s wish for an early decision to allow him to give the series and its characters a proper ending.

Shore originally was hoping for a resolution by end of last year but he and the network “agreed mutually to put it off until after the first of the year,” Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly said at TCA in January. At the time he admitted  that he’s been “avoiding” making the decision because “it’s hard to imagine the network without House… It’s going to be a close call.”  I hear the network made that call over the past 24 hours, siding with Shore who felt that creatively the series was in a place where he wanted to bring it home.

The official announcement about House M.D.’s cancellation:

After much deliberation, the producers of House M.D. have decided that this season of the show, the 8th, should be the last. 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, as it risks putting asunder hundreds of close friendships that have developed over the last eight years – but also because the show itself has been a source of great pride to everyone involved.

Since it began, House has aspired to offer a coherent and satisfying world in which everlasting human questions of ethics and emotion, logic and truth, could be examined, played out, and occasionally answered. This sounds like fancy talk, but it really isn’t. House has, in its time, intrigued audiences around the world in vast numbers, and has shown that there is a strong appetite for television drama that relies on more than prettiness or gun play.

But now that time is drawing to a close. The producers have always imagined House as an enigmatic creature; he should never be the last one to leave the party. How much better to disappear before the music stops, while there is still some promise and mystique in the air.

The producers can never sufficiently express their gratitude to the hundreds of dedicated artists and technicians who have given so generously of their energy and talent to make House the show it has been – and perhaps will continue to be for some time, on one cable network or another.

The makers of House would also like to thank Fox Broadcasting and Universal Television for supporting the show with patience, imagination and large quantities of good taste. The Studio-As-Evil-Adversary is one of the many clichés that House has managed to avoid, and for that the cast and crew are deeply grateful.

Lastly, the audience: some have come and some have gone, obviously. This is to be expected in the life of any show. But over the course of the last eight years, the producers of House have felt immensely honored to be the subject of such close attention by an intelligent, discriminating, humane and thoughtful – not to mention numerous – audience. Even the show’s detractors have been flattering in their way. Making the show has felt like a lively and passionate discussion about as many different subjects as could possibly be raised in 177 hours. The devotion and generosity of our viewers has been marvelous to behold.

So, finally, everyone at House will bid farewell to the audience and to each other with more than a few tears, but also with a deep feeling of gratitude for the grand adventure they have been privileged to enjoy for the last eight years. If the show lives on somewhere, with somebody, as a fond memory, then that is a precious feat, of which we will always be proud.
Everybody Lies.

House M.D. starred Hugh Laurie, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard, Jesse Spencer, Lisa Edelstein, Jennifer Morrison, Bobbin Bergstrom, Peter Jacobson, and Olivia Wilde.

I used to watch House all the time but stopped watching about six or seven episodes back. After 13 (Olivia Wilde) left (to focus on her film career), my interest in the show started to wane. It didn’t wane because I missed seeing Olivia Wilde every week, which was true though, but I missed her tragic storyline. I wanted to see what would eventually happen with her and to her. Would House actually kill her when it came time, et cetera. When the possibility of that and other resolutions got wiped out, so did a larger portion of my interest in the show.

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Though not mentioned in the announcement, this season’s rating could not be good, at least not as strong as the previous three seasons. “After a slow start and facing cancellation after its first season, House grew into a bonafide hit and was Fox’s highest-rated scripted series for most of its run. Last season, the series’ ratings started to drop off significantly, a trend that continued this season.”

That had to play into this announcement and spin on the situation but that is just conjecture on my part.

I will miss the show. It was good.

What are you thoughts on House M.D. ending?

Source: DeadlineLiveforfilms

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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