In quite a surprising announcement, HBO revealed, via press release yesterday, that the forthcoming fifth season of Big Love, which premieres Sunday, January 16th, will be the final season for the hour-long drama. Series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer said, "When we created Big Love in 2002, we had a strong conception of the journey the Henrickson family would make over the course of the series, of the story we had to tell. While we were in the writers’ room this year shaping our fifth season, we discovered that we were approaching the culmination of that story. This coming January, we look forward to presenting our audience with the most vibrant and satisfying final season of a television series that we can produce.”

Surely this will be somewhat of a disappointment for long-time fans of the series, but at least the creators are ending the series on their own terms, with a completed story rather than having the series canceled or stretched over too many seasons. On the lighter side, with all the original programming HBO has on the way, at least there will be one less series to allow for a brand new story to flourish on the cable network. Any sad Big Love fans out there?