Executive producers Josh Safran and Stephanie Savage spoke to a small roomful of reporters at a screening of next week's CW drama's milestone.
Gossip Girl may live to see another season.
Executive producers Josh Safran, also showrunner, and executive producer Stephanie Savage indicated as much at a screening Wednesday morning of the CW drama's 100th episode, "G.G.," airing Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. In fact, the writers opted not to write a series ender.
"We're not writing a series finale this year," Savage said.
Later during the Q&A session, she expanded on her statement.
"That's with many conversations with people, [they'd] stare at me and roll their eyes and go, 'Seriously, dude, you have to stop asking me if you should be writing this year's [series] finale,' " she said to a small roomful of reporters, before clarifying further.
"I checked in with the bosses to make sure we're not shooting ourselves in the foot," added Savage.
"The actors' contracts expire at the end of next season, so that feels like probably an organic ending point," Savage told THR in the latest issue of the weekly magazine, with Warner Bros. TV president Peter Roth echoing the sentiment: "I certainly hope we get one more season."
That should be a sigh of relief to viewers of the television series, based on the popular young adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar (who has appeared on the show), which has hovered around 1.3 million to its premiere telecasts this season. At its highest point, Gossip Girl reached more than 3.7 million.
Even so, hitting 100 for any show is "a big deal," Savage says.
"The O.C. got to 93 episodes, Chuck got to a heartbreaking 91 episodes," the television vet says. "A hundred episodes in our industry is considered the standard of success of achievement. To get there on a serial drama, especially a show about young people, especially on a cycle where there was a writers' strike, it's a big deal."
Safran joked that it was his naivete that made him confident from Day 1 that Gossip Girl, which launched in 2007, would hit the mark.
"I was new to this, I was wide-eyed. 'This will totally make it there!,' " he recalls. "[Stephanie] kept going, 'Shut up, shut up!,' which I get now. Now I would never say that."
Savage noted that though hitting the magic 100 is no longer about syndication, "it's really still a milestone."
Gossip Girl airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. on the CW.
