By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Saturday, July 23, 2016
In an impressively anti-climactic announcement, the CW said it will end "The Vampire Diaries" this coming season after eight years on air.
Star Ian Somerhalder effectively leaked the news more than three months ago at a Nashville Walker Stalker convention, telling the crowd unequivocally: "We have decided to do one last season to really do the story justice,"
Why the CW held off until now to make the news official, I have no idea. Creators Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec made the announcement at Comic Con.
After Georgia passed beefed-up tax credits, movie and TV production companies began entering the state. "The Vampire Diaries" was one of the first to commit in the spring of 2009. For several seasons, the drama was the CW's most popular show. It's the longest-running scripted series shot in Georgia.
It is also the second-longest running series still in production, behind only Bravo's durable reality show "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," which debuted October 7, 2008 and is in its ninth season of production. "The Vampire Diaries" debuted September 10, 2009.
The sci-fi drama has aired 155 episodes to date and will conclude with 177, unless the CW changes its usual episode order of 22.
Four main characters have been series regulars since the beginning: Somerhalder as vampire Damon Salvatore, Paul Wesley as brother Stefan, Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennett and Candice King as Caroline Forbes. Nina Dobrev, a key player from the beginning who actually dated Somerhalder for a time, left the series after six seasons.
The show uses parts of metro Atlanta as the fictional Mystic Falls, with Covington the show's primary home. It led to the first tour in Atlanta based on a show shot here and the Mystic Falls tour is still active.
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