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A couple of recent articles on Chuck-related blogs have raised the question about whether or not the creators of Chuck should place an end date on the show in order to provide an conclusion on their own terms as opposed to being canceled. The more pessimistic side of the argument asserts that “people in the industry” expect this to be Chuck’s final season, likely without an additional episode order, which of course has a lot of fans worried. Our response to that? Because of our 80+ interviews with the cast, crew, and creative team of Chuck, in addition to working with many others at the studio and the network, we keep in close contact with many involved in the production of the show, and are often privy to information not disclosed to the public. Â Not one of these contacts on the show, at the studio, or at the network are predicting that this is Chuck‘s final season.
If TV statistics, history, or “reality†were the judge, Chuck would not have even seen a third season.  The history we choose to focus on is this:  Chuck fans have defied the odds not once, but twice, and they can yet again.  There is no viable historical precedent to Chuck, and no reason we shouldn’t expect a fifth or sixth season at this point.
Everyone involved with the show is focused on producing a fourth season that is full of action, humor, romance, and drama. A season that fans have been buzzing about for weeks, thanks to clues we’ve received from Comic Con, casting announcements, and interviews with the cast and creators. Argue the merits of going out on your own terms as much as you wish, but it is far, far too early to predict if Chuck will continue beyond season 4 – which hasn’t even debuted yet – whether you’re a viewer or an “insider”. For now we choose to focus on what sounds like an fresh, interesting story coming our way beginning September 20th.
And those extra episodes? If history is any indicator, expect an announcement prior to the season premiere.
4 seasons is definately not enough for Chuck!
I can see a fifth or even sixth season easily.
Are these people crazy? 4 seasons is NOT enough Chuck.
Chuck has defied all odds for the past two seasons, no reason to believe it won’t continue to do so. It’s got it’s own thing going, and I certainly see no reason for anyone to be throwing in the towel. Long live Chuck!
Indeed, I’m hoping the ratings go well this time then we can have a fighting chance for more episodes and yes a fifth season to perhaps to wrap things up. I’d love for CHUCK to go on for a good while. Please TV gods let it happen.
No way,there’s never enough Chuck!!I wish it could go on and on,and on….Best show i’ve ever seen!!and i can tell i’ve seen a loooottt!!
You can never have enough Chuck! I definately hope they go beyond Season 4 (I’d like to have Chuck to watch while I’m in college). Chuck will continue because their fans LOVE it!
Call it quits before Season 4 even debuts??? Please.
As a fan, I fully intend to support and promote this show until I turn blue in the face. I have been and will continue to encourage everyone I meet to freshen up on Season 3 if they’ve been following the show, to get caught up on Seasons 1 through 3 if they’re new to the show, and to tune in on September 20th for the Season 4 that we as fans have demanded.
One way or another, this show will continue so long as there is a dedicated fan base supporting it. Let’s ramp up interest in this show as much as we can leading up to September 20th, people!
LONG LIVE TEAM BARTOWSKI!!! LONG LIVE CHUCK!!!
I’m sure when Scwartz and Fedak get bored they’ll wrap it up in some wonderful and unexpected way. But if they keep changing it up the way they have every season and continue to open themselves up to fan interaction, I don’t see them losing their own excitement for some time to come. They seem to be just fanboys with a way cooler sandbox than the rest of us. You know, just like us. Except a lot luckier. 😉
(I seem to remember way back when that they came in with a five-season plan. Don’t know how many eps that would be. Let’s say 22 per season, so approximately 110 eps. So it may work out to even more than five “seasons” since that concept is more plastic now than it used to be.)
Especially in light of the fact that they were anticipating 5 seasons at 22 eps each. Season One had 13, Three had 19, and Four has only been committed to 13 thus far. Only Two went the full 22.
CHUCK needs at least five seasons. This can’t be the end. Getting a fifth season will probably be the hardest, but it will be well worth it. Lets face it, shows in the 4th year don’t have an increase in viewers. The only one I can think of that did was Sienfield. So, lets pray that CHUCK will have another miracle and we will all be blessed with a fifth season and maybe even a sixth. I don’t want my Monday to go back to being plan ol’ boring, depressing, Mondays. I want CHUCK Monday where I can enjoy a night of fun with my family and friends.
without chuck monday night is going ot be abit of a wasteland
Monday night is anything but a wasteland — which is why Chuck fares so poorly. There was the CBS unstoppable block of shows with Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. Then there was House from FOX. With BBT moving to Thursday, the pressure might let up a bit but not by much. But as long as NBC continues to treat Chuck as the neglected step-child, it will always have problems.
Not while we fans have breath left in us they won’t, We’ll keep fighting our hardest to keep our favorite show on the air for as long as we can. No way am I calling quits on CHUCK now. LONG LIVE CHUCK AND TEAM BARTOWSKI!!!
People always talk, so let them talk!
Forget Smallville (10 seasons) and E.R. (13 seasons), Chuck will outrun them all!
Looking forward to the next decade full of Chuck and the highly anticipated – from all of us – Season 4! 🙂 Chuck Me!
My heart almost stopped when I read just the title. I’m way not prepared for Chuck to end, and so aren’t the writers, producers and writers, I hope. Just thinking about it tears began to appear..
Who would have predicted where Chuck is now compared to season 1? Even Schwartz and Fedak have admitted to changing their creative course with the show. Why should they or NBC want to pull the plug now? Chuck is in a better place now than it ever has been. Let’s continue to get the word out about what appears to be an awesome Season 4!
wow, season 4 not even begin…
we kind usted to those worrys like that. too soon… but i´m pretty sure chuck 4.0 will be the year of consagration.
just look those special guests. producers are playing high and all i see is high expectations.
we, fans, must understand this in a positive way. more talk about chuck, better for us.
ratings have new allies now, so we just need to watch the show and hope for a fun season 4.
CHUCK…SMASH!! 🙂
Mel, you know I share your optimism! It’s great to have your experience agree with my impressions.
And you know what? Despite the fact that the first half of S3 is available online (at NBC and Hulu), I can’t wait for the DVD to arrive in about a month. I love me my Chuck marathons!
You do know that you can download all of S3 on Amazon and re-watch even before the DVD comes out. I’ve got my DVD’s preordered, but have been watching the down loaded versions for over a month now.
Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak are the kings of ending CHuck seasons on such a note that NBC have to make a new season, otherwise we’d riot.
I remember when I watched the Season 2 finale – I mean WOWWWW. And when they said they weren’t sure of a Season 3, I could’ve screamed. After that “I know Kung Fu”, I sat there, jawdropped and silent. And then Season 3 with the Mama B revelation. And I’m sure Season 4,5,6,7,8 and 9 will be aswell, not that I’m getting carried away or anything.
We’ll survive as long as we keep pulling for the best show on TV, our show.
I really don’t have high hopes for this season after watching the ratings drop post-renewal from Season 3. I have every expectation that this will be their final season. To make matters worse, Chuck is going to have competition from his own network — there seems to be a new spy show called “Undercovers” on NBC. It’s by JJ Abrams so it should be really good!
The gang at Chuck should really “chuck” NBC as the network and go somewhere where they’re not treated so poorly. How NBC is still a viable network is anyone’s guess. They haven’t had a good show in the years since Friends — Chuck doesn’t really count since it’s under the constant threat of cancellation.
I’ve seen the pilot for Undercovers (review coming in a couple of weeks). In short, it’s not competition for Chuck, it’s a complementary program on NBC’s schedule.
I got really concerned for the future of Chuck once I learned that NBC gave the go-ahead for the new JJ Abrams spy show Undercovers that centers around a spy couple and their adventures. Why are they putting ANOTHER SHOW ABOUT A SPY COUPLE on their network if Chuck’s future is so secure?
That was the first thing that caught my eye. Then a few days ago NBC canceled that new show Tony Robbins put together that only aired twice before it got the boot. Ratings for it were “low”, but when compared the recent ratings for Chuck which were @ a 2 rating Tony Robbins did much better at the time the show was cut with a ratings close to 3.
So, yes, I think it would make good sense and is probably a good idea to look at Season 4 of Chuck as the final season and that it should be ended with some good closure for the characters in it and not end on a “cliffhanger” or a “new trajectory” to be revealed/explored in a probable Season 5.
The question is simply: Is four seasons enough for Chuck? The answer is: there’s never enough Chuck–you can always have more.
To be technical, if we can defy TV rules once and twice, we surely can do it again this season. And if CHUCK gets a season five, a season six is probably a lock as WB might sell it off for a dirt cheap price to get those syndication numbers. (Usually that’s true for a season four but Chuck’s episode numbers are all over the place than “normal” TV shows).
While I agree with the general sentiment of this article, this has to be the stupidest sentence ever: “Not one of these contacts on the show, at the studio, or at the network are predicting that this is Chuck‘s final season.”
Um, why WOULD they? Get real.
Since it’s one of the most consistently-performing shows on the network and over the last few years become an “veteran” show (for lack of a better word) maybe the producers could do what the Lost people did with ABC and negotiate an end date, with a set number of episodes. That would keep both sides happy.
Schwedak should stick to their guns. Trying to run a story arc in a cancellation panic would lead to the type of absurdly abrupt plot turns we saw in “the Mask”. If NBC bails, there’s always USA. NBC may sneer at 5 million viewers, but USA would be pleased with those kinds of numbers. And “Chuck” would fit quite nicely alongside other quality shows such as “Burn Notice”, “White Collar” and “Covert Affairs”.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the USA network. They’ve been making terrific shows, and Chuck could definitely fit for them, even if it would mean a shorter 16 episode season.
Amen, Doctor Bob!
Sorry, just decided to place my thoughts under hear since I was reading you comment about USA… Would I ever want to be canceled/have it end after four seasons? No. But I’m realistic and I can see it ending after this season if it’s ratings don’t go up/NBC’s other new shows do well (which is definitely not a guarantee on NBC). 1.9-2.0 ratings demos for the back half of the season…that made me really nervous and those ratings need to go up before I stop worring. Because while Chuck is consistent in the ratings, consistent at 1.9-2.0 just won’t cut it.
And for Chuck to go to USA…while I would love that, I don’t think that would ever happen. Even with it’s slashed budget, Chuck would still be too expensive for USA, I think. I don’t know if they’d want to bring a long Chuck, something that, at that point, if that happened, would have “failed” on network tv and there is no guarantee all of Chuck’s viewers would follow it to USA. While I agree, it would fit in nicely with those shows, USA does a great job of developing their own projects and already have the spy genre covered with Burn Notice, Covert Affairs, and even to a degree White Collar.
Sorry, those are just my thoughts, not meaning to be a kill joy. I don’t want Chuck to be cancled by any means after this season, but I do think it could maybe be a strong possibility, depending on the demos, other shows.
To counter that, why would “insiders” tell another person who blogs about Chuck that they don’t think Chuck has a shot at a fifth season?
No, that’s exactly my point. They all want to keep their jobs (in the case of the crewmwmbers)/keep making money off a show (in the case of the network), so they wouldn’t actively predict its demise.
Or it could be because it’s MONTHS too early to predict whether the show will continue.
Not only could Chuck work for many more seasons, especially with the revelation of Stephen’s lair at the end of S3 finale, Chuck could totally work as a feature-length film. There are thousands of stories that can be told.
there will never be enough seasons of CHUCK!!!!!
Chuck is definitely a five season+ show. I think it would take at LEAST five seasons to tell the story in a satisfying way. More seasons would be preferable. Nowadays any show is doing well if it gets five seasons though.
Every season could be your last in television. There are no
gaurentees. When the end comes I hope the last episode
let’s Chuck and Sarah get married and live happily ever after.
To answer the topic in my opinion is season 4 enough the answer is no…There are still plenty of story lines where the writers can create for the characters,but they should also listen to the fans suggestions and opinion to avoid lapses/mistakes,like what happened to S3.
I personally want Chuck to continue indefinitely and the pessimism truly upsets me. After seeing the “batcave” of PapaB and all the crates of information – Schwartz and Fedak proved beyond a doubt that they have plenty of ideas to keep the show going for however long the fans want it.
If we, the fans, have fought and beaten the odds with pursuing continuance of our favorite show – there is no reason why we can’t keep pushing it forward. The cast and crew continue to put out excellent work IMO and I don’t foresee that changing anytime soon. I say let’s keep up promoting Chuck and we will be rewarded for our efforts in the long run.
Thanks Mel for wholeheartedly encouraging us, the fan base, that Chuck will continue to thrill us week after week.
I love positivity!
Chuck has to run 5 seasons if only because Zachary Levi deserves to be remembered more as Chuck Bartowski than asKip Steadman.
I certainly don’t agree that the season 4 would be the enough for Chuck!
Chuck fans defied the odds so many times, and the viewers aren’t only limited to the US I mean CHUCK is loved by every country that this show is being shown.
But lets just cross our fingers and hope for the best, we can’t gain anything if were too pessimistic. right?
The viewers outside the US don’t really matter. At all. At least when it comes to gettiing shows renewed by a network. While it may be loved in many other countries, advertisers only care about that key 18-49 demo. Total viewers aren’t even that much of a factor…The Office for instance, doesn’t have that high of total viewers but does well in the demo. Sorry, I just really worry about Chuck’s demos going forward. They had a very troubling downward trend last season. Hopefully they will pick up. But you are right, we can’t get too pessimistic, and it has defied the odds before.
And this is where TPTB are missing the point. ‘Chuck’ has a HUGE international audience. Nielsen ratings just aren’t representative anymore. Look at the countries which have bought it from Amazon alone on DVD [and not just the USA, Amazon; the international variants]. Witness the fact that Chuck stars have attended events in the UK and Italy at least.
However many seasons Chuck gets, I’m hoping for a great, warm, awesome ending/finale!
Unfortunately TPTB at NBC don’t take international viewership into consideration because they don’t earn any revenue from international sources because they don’t own the show, they just broadcast it in the US. WB produces Chuck and does profit from selling it around the world which may allow them to negotiate a better license rate with NBC, so at least there’s a little trickle down effect.
4 seasons is definitely not enough. I need AT LEAST 5 seasons. But preferably more. Oh, and please, please take Sara out of the helpless woman in distress role she almost fell into in Season 3 (still loved season 3 though)
Creators have only themselves to blame, don’t get me wrong – season 3 was still good television but it can’t really compare to the previous seasons in my eyes. With the fan base as small as Chuck’s, people behind the show should pay more attention to their fans. (And no, I’m not some crazy shipper, that’s just one of many reasons why I think season 3 wasn’t as good as previous two.) I really hope we’ll get more episodes but I’m staying realistic. Just my two cents.
I’ve always liked the idea of 5 seasons too. Maybe because it reminds me of one of my favorite shows in the 90’s, Babylon 5 which was planned specifically to last only 5 seasons. They had the whole story arc planned out (at least that’s how it seemed) and the network they were on (it was cable, I’m pretty sure) gave them their run, it was so popular it spawned movies after the series ended. Chuck has such a rich cache of characters, story and mythology that it would need that long to really rap things up. Will NBC give them that chance? Well, not being Showrunners we are not privy to all the in’s, out’s and what have you’s that go on at the network. I’ll leave the worrying to them. For my part, I am going to just sit back and enjoy every episode we get for as long as we get them. If the fans are once again “called to arms”, I’ll certainly join in, but at this point it is rather premature and futile to worry about it.
You make an interesting point there, P-mom. These stories and characters can live on after their TV lives have ended. You cite “Babylon 5”. I often recall the original “Star Trek” from the 1960’s. The original run lasted all of two seasons, if that. But the films went on and on, generated spin-off shows on TV, and more films with evolving casts. Not that I relish the idea of the evolving casts to the point where it no longer resembles the “Chuck” of old, mind you. It’s just that the end of NBC’s involvement does not necessarily mean the end of “Chuck”.