Say Goodbye to Sookie: 'True Blood' Ending After Season 7

HBO announced on Tuesday that the upcoming season of "True Blood" would be the series' last. Although ratings for the show remained relatively strong last season, viewership numbers were down compared to the previous season, and its ratings lagged well behind those of HBO's current leading series, "Game of Thrones."

The just-concluded sixth season of "True Blood" was led by new showrunner Brian Buckner, who told The Hollywood Reporter before HBO's announcement that he that the series had "one or two more great years" in it. Buckner was willing to continue with the series but acknowledge that the decision was up to HBO.

HBO renewed "True Blood" for its seventh season just after the premiere of the season-six opener, but the network seemed to have a change of heart about the series' future after the season's ratings remained consistently below those of season 5.

Despite the marginal decline in ratings, "True Blood" remains HBO's third-most-watched original scripted series ever, behind "The Sopranos" and "Game of Thrones." Sookie and the vampires had the misfortune of being compared directly to "Game of Thrones," however, since that series is currently airing and has been drawing significantly more viewers than "True Blood."

The 10-episode seventh season of "True Blood" will begin airing in the summer of 2014, but no premiere date has been set yet.