AirLockAlpha.com

It looks like it's four and out for "Battlestar Galactica."

Both series stars Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff, who play Adm. William Adama and Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on the series, told IESB's Stephanie Sanchez that SciFi Channel will officially pull the plug on "Battlestar Galactica" following its fourth season, which begins in January.

"This will probably be the most extraordinary season of 'Battlestar,'" said Olmos, while attending the Saturn Awards Thursday night in Universal City, Calif. "It's the final season, so it's definitely going to be the most vicious. As far as we know, in respects of the way we have this show constructed, this is the final season."

After hearing that Olmos had already talked about it, Sackhoff almost confirmed to Sanchez that this would, in fact, be the final season of the show that has received across-the-board critical praise, but has been stumbling in the ratings in recent years.

"I think part of the problem is that it's an expensive show," said Sackhoff, who also implied that her guest role in the new NBC series "The Bionic Woman" may not be just a guest role after all. "It is [a great show], but we don't have the viewership that a great show should get."

Readers to Airlock Alpha shouldn't be surprised about the announcement. When SciFi Channel originally picked up a 13-episode initial order of the series earlier this year, a network source told Airlock Alpha that if the network had opted to go with 22 episodes as producer David Weddle told the site it might a few days before, it would be so that the showrunners could have enough time to end the series the way they wanted.

"If you're a fan, you don't want to see any more than 13 episodes," the source told Airlock Alpha at the time. "Questions are going back and forth on whether or not [SciFi Channel] will pick the show up again. It's not a decision you make at the last minute because obviously [the network] will want to allow the show to wrap up."

The writing has been on the wall for some time, especially as some of the key players on the show -- including executive producer David Eick and his work with "The Bionic Woman" for NBC -- were exploring other opportunities that would limit their day-to-day involvement with "Battlestar Galactica" if it had continued on past the fourth season.

"Not every show gets an opportunity like this," the source said. "The 'Battlestar' story could have ended right then and there at the end of the fourth [season], but having these episodes in their hip pocket, [SciFi Channel] can let the show end on the producers' terms."

No official word has arrived from SciFi Channel or NBC Universal, so even though this information comes from two of the major actors on the series, treat it like you would any other rumor.

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