Frasier to say 'goodnight Seattle' - and Channel 4 - for the last time

Frasier Crane, television's favourite comic psychiatrist, is getting ready to say "Goodnight, Seattle" for the very last time. After 10 seasons on the air and an 11th now in the works, it seems that Frasier has reached the end of its highly popular, award-laden road.

The entertainment newspaper Variety reported yesterday that Paramount, which produces the show, and NBC, the network that broadcasts it in the United States, have decided not to renegotiate their licensing agreement when it expires next summer. In other words, barring a last-minute change of heart, the forthcoming 2003-04 season will be the last.

The end has been looming for a while for the long-time staple of Channel 4's Friday night line-up as ratings have declined and the cost of producing the show, fuelled mainly by the salaries of its stars Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, has soared. Next year could also see the end of some of the small screen's most enduring hits of recent times. The producers of Friends have said that next year will be the last, and that the show may not even stretch to a full 22-episode season. HBO, which produces Sex and the City, made a similar announcement last week, saying six seasons was probably enough. The show's star, Sarah Jessica Parker, said at the Golden Globes award ceremony at the weekend that she did not think there would be any second thoughts about that decision.

Admittedly, announcements about the demise of popular shows are notoriously fickle. Friends, for example, has been on the verge of ending for at least the past two years, but has always been revived because the actors are enticed with ever-dizzying sums of money and the network agrees to keep running the show at a loss because the ratings, even if they are weakening, are still irresistible and promise extra revenue through syndicated re-runs. But in the case of Frasier, the reports are likely to be accurate. Grammer and Hyde Pierce have been paid well over $1m per half- hour episode this season, pushing the cost for NBC above $5m (£3m). With ratings well down from the show's peak a few years ago, that is far more than the network can hope to recoup through advertising. By the end of next year Frasier will have been on the air for 11 seasons, equalling the innings notched up by its predecessor, Cheers. Grammer's character, Dr Frasier Crane, first appeared as a barfly in the Boston-based series in 1984.

Although Frasier and Friends were shows that helped to define the cultural landscape of the 1990s, their demise does not signal the end of a golden age of US television comedy. Already, newer shows such as Will & Grace, about two room-mates with different sexual orientations, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, starring the Seinfield co-creator Larry David as a cranky variant of himself, are making waves. Curb Your Enthusiasm won top television comedy honours at the Golden Globes and is due to start airing in the UK shortly.