'Longmire' on Netflix Ends Next Year

When A&E announced that it was cancelling Longmire after the series' third season two years ago, the decision touched off a wave of anger from the show's devoted fan base. That anger was enough to convince Netflix to pick up the series and produce new episodes, a move that made the legion of Longmire fans very happy. This week, Netflix announced that its support of the series is, too, coming to an end.

The news of Longmire's ultimate cancellation was presented in positive terms, as a renewal of the series for one more season before the end. The current fourth season of 10 episodes hit Netflix last month, and the service will produce another 10-episode fifth season to be released sometime in 2017.

After that, though, Longmire will be no more. If there's any consolation, it's that Netflix is giving the series a dignified end, with plenty of time to wrap up plot threads and resolve characters' storylines. That's opposed to the series' initial cancellation on A&E, which came unexpectedly; although the series was a solid ratings performer for A&E, its audience was reportedly skewed too old for the cable network, which had been increasingly chasing younger audiences with a schedule dominated by reality programming.