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Jumping the shark

As that great philosopher Kenny Rogers once sang: “you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”
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The Glee cast might be wise to leave before the magic slips.

As that great philosopher Kenny Rogers once sang: “you’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.”

The saying especially holds true for television. For every Lost that left right on time, the TV landscape is littered with shows that, once wildly popular, simply stayed too long and wore out their welcomes. Greedy networks or producers — hungry for syndication revenues — kept pumping them out for one or two more seasons even after viewers bailed or key cast members left to pursue movie careers.

It’s a list that would make a hardened network programmer wince: Heroes, Ugly Betty, ER, That ’70s Show, Will & Grace, 7th Heaven — even Law & Order — and, going further back, The Drew Carey Show and Murphy Brown.

Will the following five still-popular shows slide into the “stayed too long” category this coming season?

House: House is now a House divided. Lisa Edelstein has left the series, failing to come to terms for an eighth season. Besides Hugh Laurie’s cranky MD at the centre of this show, Edelstein’s Dr. Cuddy was the other key to this series. Her character kept alive hope House would one day wake up and stop being such a jerk. The awful way the series ended this past May — House literally crashing his car into Cuddy’s place, endangering the life of her baby — puts him in a corner so dark many viewers may no longer wish to even go there anymore.

Desperate Housewives: Series creator and executive producer Marc Cherry once vowed his series would pack it in after seven seasons. “I’m serious in my intent to end it after seven years,” said Cherry. “I don’t want to overstay my welcome.” Instead, coming off its worst ratings year ever — dipping below 10 million U.S. viewers by season’s end — the ABC drama is limping back on its high heels for an eighth season this fall. Cherry was enticed back by that old Hollywood extension device — bags full of money. So were the leading ladies in the cast. But with former housewife Nicollette Sheridan suing Cherry for wrongful dismissal, there’s now more drama off the Housewives set than on. Set an end date, ABC, and let Cherry build to a frothy finish.

Grey’s Anatomy: This once-beloved hospital drama is also heading into an eighth season, but dropped out of the American Top 25 for the first time last year, finishing 31st overall. The former Top 5 series has shed viewers as it has shed key cast members, with Katherine Heigl the most recent star to split. Doctor “McDreamy” himself, Patrick Dempsey, has said that this eighth year will be his last (although a spokesperson for the show later denied that). Some have suggested that last season’s musical episode was a shark jumper and that the show should be taken off life support. ABC counters that, like Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy still commands high ad revenues, gets plenty of PVR play and is still a big money maker for the network.

CSI: When it comes time to exhume CSI, forensic investigators may conclude that the series really died when William Petersen (Gil Grissom) left during the ninth season. This month, the actor who replaced him, Laurence Fishburne, abruptly announced he would not be returning after two-and-a-half seasons. This fall, CBS is moving the series out of its Thursday night slot, over to Wednesdays to start a 12th year. Although the series is still an enormous worldwide hit, a big CBS money-maker and a PVR favourite (and doing well on CTV in summer reruns), it may be time to bring Grissom back and let CSI go out with a bang instead of a whimper.

Glee: Has it already jumped the shark? There are some who suggested that a wildly uneven second season derailed the joy and momentum this series had at the beginning. Co-creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy recently said he’s heard the criticisms and is taking note, vowing to cut back on the celebrity tribute episodes, guest star storylines and other excesses. The plan is to concentrate more on the core characters but even there the show is heading for a cliff. Several key cast members, including Finn (Canadian Cory Monteith), are heading into their final year at McKinley High. Murphy says he is pressing ahead with plans to turn over the cast at the end of this season. This won’t be how Sue sees it, but why not let Glee go out on a high note instead and end with a glee club nationals triumph followed by a gleeful graduation?

Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.