March will bring the final original episodes of Lifetime Television's acclaimed series Any Day Now, one of the tent poles of what has become basic cable's strongest night of dramatic programming.
But fans will still be able to get their fill of Any Day Now, as Lifetime will strip the show beginning next summer.
A Lifetime spokeswoman said the series would complete its fourth season next March, finishing up at 88 original episodes. Those installments will "then be stripped in summer 2002," according to executive vice president of public affairs and corporate communications Meredith Wagner, who added that a final scheduling decision had not yet been made.
Lifetime is still evaluating its options for a successor to Any Day Now.
"We have a number of projects and pilots in the works and expect to have announcement within a few weeks," Wagner said.
Any Day Now, produced by Paid Our Dues Productions and Wilshire-Hauser Productions in association with Spelling Entertainment, tracks the lives of Mary Elizabeth Simms (Potts), a white homemaker who is married with two children, and a successful African-American attorney, Rene Jackson (Lorraine Toussaint), Simms's friend since childhood. Jackson returns to her childhood home in Birmingham, Ala., and the pair, via flashbacks, revisit the Civil Rights Movement from their youthful perspective.
Wagner said a key reason behind the decision to end the series was that Potts's commitment to the show ends with this season.
"This doesn't come as a surprise," said Wagner. "Annie Potts always had a four-year deal."
Wagner added that Maya Jackson and Olivia Hack, the actresses who played the young Rene and Mary Elizabeth characters, had grown too old to continue in the roles, so three of the four main characters would need to be replaced.
Any Day Now
had continued to improve in the ratings. New episodes averaged a 1.6, 2.0 and 2.2 during the first three seasons, respectively. This year, it has averaged a 2.8 through 12 installments, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Division, Strong Medicine
and Any Day Now
formed a Sunday-night trio that helped catapult Lifetime to the top of the primetime basic-cable ratings charts.
"Lifetime will miss what was its first breakout original dramatic series," one cable-network programming executive said. "It's a quality show that has been growing its audience every year. It also served as a launching pad for the success the network has enjoyed on Sunday nights."
