Is this the end of the road for Wisteria Lane?
“Desperate Housewives” — though still a top 10 show — was glaringly absent from the list of six series renewed by ABC yesterday, creating speculation that Bree, Susan, Lynette and Gabby could be living on borrowed time.
“We have made no decisions on them yet,” network chief Paul Lee said of the suburban dramedy and its Sunday night companion “Brothers and Sisters,” which also hangs in limbo.
There are “various things we have to close” in order for “Housewives” to return for an eighth season, Lee told The Post. “We are not quite there on a number of places.”
The big hang-up, it seems, is money.
Contracts with the show’s four stars — Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher — are up this spring. Each reportedly earns $400,000 per episode, among the highest in the industry.
Significant pay hikes could make the show uneconomical to produce.
The network would not make creator Marc Cherry available for comment. But in 2007, he hinted: “After seven seasons, it will be a good time to call it quits. I don’t want us to fade away. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”
Cherry recently signed a production deal with ABC that extends through the 2011-12 season.
He is currently developing a pilot described as “a small town torn between good and evil finds hope when a stranger moves into town.”