Logo

Executive Producer of ‘The Office’ Announces the End of the Series

Aug 21, 2012  •  Post A Comment

The executive producer of NBC’s highest-rated scripted series, “The Office,” has taken the wraps off plans to wind down the comedy series, Deadline.com reports.

Greg Daniels revealed that the show’s upcoming ninth season will be its last. Daniels, who ran the series during its first five seasons and has returned for season nine, made the announcement during a conference call this morning, the story reports.

“It was a hard decision but this is going to be a real gangbuster season,” Daniels said. He said the main reason for ending the series at this time is to ensure creative closure.

“This year feels like the last chance” for the show to have “an artistic ending,” Daniels said, according to the report.

The report notes: “With ‘The Office’ still ranking as NBC’s highest-rated scripted series, Daniels said he feared the network might want to ‘cling to it’ when he approached NBC executives with the idea of ending the show.”

Daniels added: “It’s actually a big surprise to me that NBC was so supportive of this decision. We all had a lot of passion for it and persuaded them.”

Daniels revealed that a number of plot lines will be wrapped up — and that the identity of the documentary camera crew will be revealed.

“Now that we know we have an end date, we can take some chances and blow things up,” he said.

The report adds: “The Emmy-winning comedy struggled to recover from the exit of its leading man Steve Carell at the end of Season 7. After his anointed successor James Spader exited this May, word was that Daniels had a plan to reboot the long-running series heading into Season 9, which premieres Sept. 20. The series was able to secure its core cast, with Ed Helms, John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer all coming back, joined by Rainn Wilson, who will reprise his role with an eye toward jumping onto spinoff ‘The Farm,’ which the actor created with former ‘Office’ showrunner Paul Lieberstein.”

“The Office” has a full 22-episode order for the upcoming season, the story notes.

Your Comment

Email (will not be published)