Fox Bringing Down the House

This is last season for popular TV series starring Hugh Laurie
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 9, 2012 2:40 AM CST
Fox Bringing Down the House
Hugh Laurie arrives at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011 in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Cynical, manipulative, pill-popping genius doctor Gregory House is pulling down his shingle. The popular, critically acclaimed TV series House won't be back next season. “The producers have always imagined House as an enigmatic creature; he should never be the last one to leave the party," said a statement from the show's creators. "How much better to disappear before the music stops, while there is still some promise and mystique in the air.” A major contributing factor was the increasing cost of the TV series while Fox was looking to save money. Most of the cast and the producers would have required new contracts to continue into a ninth season, notes the New York Times.

Complicating the finances is the fact that the series is produced and owned by NBC Universal, which owns lucrative ancillary rights to the globally popular show. British actor Hugh Laurie plays the brainiac doc seeking life-saving diagnoses in a parade of extremely bizarre illnesses with the misanthropic bent of a Sherlock Holmes, Laurie's literary hero. He said last year that he never tired of the character, who is one of the most unusual in TV history. (More Hugh Laurie stories.)

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