Her television series, Xena: Warrior Princess will wrap a six-year run in syndication at the end of this season, its distributor announced. The scantily clad Amazon heroine's final adventure will be shot in New Zealand next spring, but first-run episodes will continue to be seen until mid-summer.
Lawless, now 32 and a mother of two, is out on the talk-show circuit this week discussing her future. On Tuesday she dropped by to chat with Rosie O'Donnell (with whom she shares the distinction of having played Rizzo in Grease), and Wednesday she'll sit in as co-host on Live! With Regis then go late night with Conan O'Brien.
The show's distributor, Studios USA, and Lawless' husband, Rob Tapert (creator and co-executive producer of the Renaissance Pictures production), issued a joint press release Monday lauding Xena's success and stating that "we want to see it to go out on top."
Steve Rosenberg, president of Studios USA Domestic Television, referred to Lawless as "more than just the star of another TV show," describing her as having "taken her character to the level of a national cult hero."
Tapert's statement refrained from being so fulsome about Lawless, whom he married in 1998, but he said the series had been "a labor of love for everyone associated with it." He noted "...all of us on the show feel it will be time to move on to new creative challenges at end of this season."
The show, seen in 115 countries, has been the top-rated syndicated action series through most of its run. Spun off from the successful Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena premiered in September 1995 with an episode titled, "Sins of the Past." Last season, the series was available to 99 percent of the United States, airing on 200 stations and averaging a 3.3 national household rating.
The final, 22-episode season began airing this month, and this week's installment finds Xena and faithful sidekick Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) continuing their life-or-death-or-afterlife adventures in "Heart of Darkness."
However, each special-effects-laden episode cost more than $1 million to produce, and the outlets for it have been dwindling due to the expanded nights of network programming on UPN, the WB and Fox stations. Weekday primetime slots have disintegrated, leaving many syndicated shows like Xena to compete in weekend afternoon slots--where they also run the danger of being preempted by sports.
Rosenberg told Daily Variety that, while no spinoff of Xena is in the works, the possibility hasn't been ruled out. (Keep your sword sharp, Gabrielle.) He says his company is intent on continuing to work with Lawless and Renaissance Pictures.
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