BONE BREAK: Hugh Laurie says he’s tired of being away from his family in England to film “House” in LA, and that’s why Season 8 could be his last.
Hugh Laurie’s “House” call days may end after next season.
Fox triumphantly announced yesterday that the series will be back for its eighth season starting this fall, but the star of the hit Fox medical drama is speculating that there won’t be a Season 9.
“The end of that [eighth] season looks like the end of the show,” Laurie reportedly told the UK’s Radio Times magazine. “That’s as far as they’ve got me for.”
The upcoming release of Laurie’s debut blues CD, “Let Them Talk,” earlier this week has sparked rumors that he intends to finish out his current “House” contract and then concentrate on his music.
Adding fuel to the end-of-series fire is the notion that series creator and executive producer David Shore’s studio deal with Universal Media Studios — the producers behind “House” — is reportedly due to expire soon, too.
Yesterday, both Fox and UMS were concentrating their excitement over “House’s” renewal for next season after having hammered out a satisfactory deal following weeks of negotiations.
Consequently, one source close to the show told The Post that “it’s premature to speculate beyond Season 8.”
Over the years, Laurie, a Brit and two-time Golden Globe winner, has made no bones about missing his wife and three kids, all of whom stayed behind in England when he moved out to Los Angeles to begin filming the series back in 2004.
“Doing weekly TV is like joining the Navy and going on the other side of the world for 10 months of the year,” Laurie told Parade magazine last spring.
“But the truth is that whatever challenging situation you’re in, somebody somewhere has got a much more extreme version. So I think one ought to shut up and not moan about it,” he added.
No doubt the reported $400,000 he pockets per episode of “House” is an added incentive not to complain too much.
“We don’t talk about when we’ll pack it in,” Laurie told Parade. “When the time comes, I think it would be good to have sort of a clean finish rather than just sort [of] trailing off. I’d like to go out with a bang, not a whimper.”
In the meantime, fans should expect a full “House” next season — contract renegotiations are moving along nicely for several of the series’ original co-stars.
Robert Sean Leonard and Omar Epps have already closed deals, reports industry gossip site deadline.com, and Lisa Edelstein is also expected to renew her contract soon. Newer cast members, including Olivia Wilde, have more time left in their deals before needing to re-sign.