How ‘Bones’ season 11 renewal uncertainty informed season 10 decisions

Tonight’s “Bones” finale was definitely a little unorthodox compared to some that we have seen in recent years, and as it turns out, there was one key reason for that: Uncertainty. We speculated that there could be less of a cliffhanger this time around courtesy of not knowing if the show was coming back, and this ended up definitely being the case on tonight’s episode. We saw Booth and Brennan decide to depart the Jeffersonian, and while Angela and Hodgins decided to stay, these two did not change their mind at the last minute.

As executive producer Stephen Nathan told TV Guide today, this was not originally the planned ending for the episode. They were at one point going to do something that was much more in line to the shockers that you’ve seen in past years:

“We had actually planned a completely different end to the season, that of a far more traditional cliff-hanger and a situation that would get us into Season 11 … But the pickup, which we always expected, didn’t come for numerous reasons that were out of our control. We were then told, ‘This could be a series-ender,’ we realized we can’t disappoint or dismiss the audience and the fans who have been so important to us for a decade … and compromise on an episode that very possible could be the last episode ever. So, we had to actually write a series finale that hopefully contained a vibe of a continuum. But the reality is this was the ending at this point in time.”

What we do really take from this that is fairly wonderful is that this proves that the show is not going to skimp on giving a fitting ending to the series, whenever it does end. We feel like it will most likely be done after season 11, but crazier things have happened.

If you missed our quick-take of the finale, head over to this link, and sign up here to get some other news on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)