Charmed Is Ready To End
Brad Kern, executive producer of The WB's Charmed, told SCI FI Wire that he decided before the official announcement that this would be the last season for the series. The show, which stars Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan, will end May 21.
Last year The WB held off making an announcement about Charmed's future until all the season's episodes had been shot. Kern said he found it challenging to create an ending for the seventh season that would honor the fans' desire for a satisfying ending for the series, while also leaving the door open in case Charmed got picked up for another season.
"I did make up my mind a long time ago, because ... I was not going to be in the same position that we were in last year," Kern said in an interview. "And I don't think that was right for the show or right for the fans. We got away with it once, but I was not going to let it happen a second time. ... I started on this path a long time ago, and it's merely just a formality to finally hear the official word."
Charmed, which has anchored Sunday nights for The WB for many years, is in its eighth season. According to Kern, the recent announcement that the series would end was "the biggest non-surprise in the history of its kind. Although I do take issue—I've gotten a few phone calls with people asking, 'What's it like to be canceled'—I said, 'We're not canceled.' Shows do end. And this is ending at just ... the right time and just the right way. So it's really all good. It's heading in exactly the direction that I wanted it to. So I really have no complaints, other than being a little tired."
The long-running supernatural series follows three sisters who must fight the forces of evil using their power as witches. Charmed has survived multiple timeslots, marginal ratings and major cast changes. While some have attributed Charmed's exit to the merger between The WB and UPN, Kern had made the decision to write this season as the show's last before the merger was announced.
"We all feel like we got a reprieve for the eighth season," Kern said. "And I think that, because of what happened last year, none of us felt very satisfied with the way we were forced to do kind of a hybrid season series finale. We've all looked at this as the last season, I mean, partly because the girls don't have any contracts, or their contracts expire after this year. And they, rightly, want to move on. And I don't have a contract next year, and I'd like to move on. ... So we all felt very strongly like this was our second chance to end the series properly." For that ending, Kern promises a "valentine" for the fans.
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