'The Tudors' will end after season IV

By Rick Porter, Zap2It.com | April 13, 2009

Jonathan Rhys Meyers of 'The Tudors'

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Showtime orders fourth and final season of series

Showtime has picked up its series "The Tudors" for a fourth -- and final -- season.

The pickup comes about a week after the show's season three premiere on April 5. The current season will focus on King Henry VII's ( Jonathan Rhys Meyers) relationships with Jane Seymour (Annabelle Wallis) and Anne of Cleves (Joss Stone), his third and fourth wives; the final season, scheduled for spring 2010, will feature his last two wives, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr, and "his final descent into madness," Showtime says.

As he's done with all other episodes to this point, creator Michael Hirst will write all 10 of the fourth season's scripts.

"I'm thrilled to complete the saga of Henry VIII as reconceived by Michael Hirst," Showtime Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt says. "He and Jonathan Rhys Meyers have breathed new life into the costume drama by making it modern in sensibility but also faithful to history. I think we proved that even after 500 years, this is a great story."

The show's third-season premiere drew about 1 million viewers in back-to-back airings on April 5. On-demand viewing pushed the total to about 1.3 million.