Apparently the rumor that network executives never work past 3 in the afternoon is not true. Well, at least the rumor that their aides and publicists don't.

Pretty late Friday night, when most major news outlets have called it a weekend, The WB quietly announced that it was pulling the plug on "Angel" after five seasons.

"For the last seven years, 'Angel' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' have been cornerstones of our network," The WB executives said in a release that appeared on the network's official Web site. "The sum total of the work done on those shows have produced some of the proudest moments in our history. Like some of the great series that are leaving the air this year, including 'Frasier' and 'Friends,' the cast, crew, writers and producers of 'Angel' deserve to be able to wrap up the series in a way befitting a classic television series, and that is why we went to (co-creator) Joss (Whedon) to let him know that this would be the least year of the series on The WB."

Of course, what The WB failed to mention is that "Frasier" nor "Friends" were cancelled by the networks, they are leaving the air on top, and after long, long runs.

The early announcement, which comes a week after the show's 100th episode, supposedly will give Whedon and his crew enough time to wrap up the series. With the cancellation of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" last year by UPN as well as his short-lived series "Firefly," Whedon will have no television projects on the air come next season.

The WB said that while they might be ending the series, it's not the end of the franchise.

"We have discussed continuing the 'Angel' legacy with special movie events next year, which is still on the table," the release said. "In a perfect world, all of these details would be completede before this information went to press, so that we could be definitive about the show's ongoing future. But in any case, we did not want to contemplate this being the last year of 'Angel' without giving the show the option of crafting their own destiny for this character and for this series."

"Angel," which has benefitted from the lead-in by the popular "Smallville" series, has had to compete against NBC powerhouse "The West Wing." However, it's ratings continue to remain stronger than that of the UPN series, "Star Trek: Enterprise," which could be a forecast for doom of that series.

Les Moonves, who heads both CBS and UPN, recently told a news service that the fate of "Enterprise" is still up in the air, and that if it does survive a fourth season, it most likely won't be in its Wednesday timeslot ... possibly moving to Fridays. However, with The WB ending its tenure with "Angel," that could be enough to push UPN to drop "Enterprise" as well.

"Angel" co-creator David Greenwalt, who remains a consultant for the series after working on "Miracles" and "Jake 2.0," told Zap2it that he was a bit surprised by the announcement.

"It's official enough to know it's real, but I haven't talked to anybody at the network or the studio," Greenwalt said. "I can tell you that it's real, that it makes Mr. Whedon and myself very sad, that we wish it had kept going, and we thought it was only getting better."

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