Longmire - Season 5 is a go!!!!! *****Season 5 update*****

Longmire on IMDB [imdb.com] (in case you're not familiar with the show)

Boasting almost five million viewers an episode and a pretty rabid fanbase, it was widely assumed Longmire would be auto-stamped for approval by A&E to film another season, but shockingly, the network decided to go in a different direction. Last night, the adaptation of Craig Johnson's mystery novels was up and cancelled with little more than a short, overly professional statement. It deserved so much better.

According to Deadline [deadline.com], Warner Horizons, the studio that funds and produces Longmire [cinemablend.com] is planning to try and sell the show to another network as soon as possible. Given the show's excellent ratings (4.6 million per episode average), it's likely someone else will take a bit if the price is right. It's one thing to cancel a popular show with slumping ratings after it's already been on the air for seven or eight years and has ballooned in cost. It's another thing to cut a show down in its prime just because it's off its Season 2 [cinemablend.com] average (6.1 million).

There's some speculation that the move is the result of a shift in behind the scenes strategies at A&E. Executives are allegedly pushing for more control over their programs and perhaps more importantly, a larger profit margin. As such, they supposedly want to focus on putting together projects they own, as well as air. That's obviously the ideal in theory, but it's hard to see why they couldn't just phase in the plan as they start generating new content, as opposed to blowing it up and starting immediately, especially when it means bailing on hits.


Warning some spoilers in link to rest of story:
http://www.cinemablend.com/televi...67011.html