Warehouse 13 has been slowly but steadily slipping in the ratings since its big, 3.5 million viewer debut in 2009. The Syfy series, which follows secret service agents retrieving supernatural artifacts, is now in its fourth season at the network and on Friday Syfy announced the show would return for a fifth season. While that’s good news, it could be better news.
The network also announced on Friday that the show’s fifth season would be its last. The network has opted to pull a popular CW trick and bring a show back for a final, shortened season. Season 5 of Warehouse 13 will consist of only six episodes, which is well down from the 20 episodes the network signed on for this season (and even the 12 or 13 episodes the show earned in other seasons). According to Deadline, shooting will begin in Toronto this summer for a 2014 premiere.
On the one hand, it’s nice that Syfy respects its original series enough to allow it to close out the remainder of its storyline, but it’s also a little bit bittersweet for the series to get cut down to six episodes just after the network showed enough confidence in the show to bump it up to 20 episodes. On another note, Syfy has built an entire programming block called “Powerful Mondays” around the network’s freshman series, Defiance, and Warehouse 13. One would think the network wouldn’t cut one of its few original programs unless it had another series lined up. Perhaps this is where Ron Moore's Helix comes in and perhaps not, but we’ll certainly let you know if Syfy makes any other new series announcements in the future.
Until then, Syfy is still airing new Season 4 episodes of Warehouse 13 on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET.
