Is 'Hart of Dixie' Canceled? Scott Porter and Wilson Bethel Give Us a Status Report
Ain’t no sunshine when Hart of Dixie’s gone… which means fans may need to start looking for the light elsewhere.
While The CW has yet to make any official decisions about the Rachel Bilson-starrer, the signs — from the show’s short, 10-episode order to the cast’s farewell-seeming Instagram posts — don’t look great. But before you go running to your local Rammer Jammer for whatever’s on tap, Scott Porter, 35, who plays handsome town lawyer George Tucker, insists there’s still hope.
“The reason we only shot 10 episodes is really because Rachel Bilson is going to have her first little baby, and there’s no Hart of Dixie without the Hart,” explains the actor. “We had an abbreviated season and this is not unusual for shows to do — if you look at Scandal just a couple of years ago — fewer episodes depending upon the schedule of when the baby is born. She really didn’t want to have to come back to work right away — she wants to be very hands-on and be able to be there those first couple of months after the baby’s born, so we just kind of shot what we could as quickly as we could and 10 episodes is what worked out for us.”
Related: ‘Hart of Dixie’ Season 3 Finale Recap
That said, Wilson Bethel — better known by Bluebellians as Wade Kinsella — is slightly less optimistic about the show’s future. In fact, he’s already lined up another gig. The actor, 30, will appear in a majority of the 10 episodes of Astronauts Wives Club, a drama coming to ABC early next year.
"There seemed to be indications that maybe potentially this could be the last season… Storywise, it started to kind of feel in that way,” he tells Yahoo TV. “In terms of some of the hullaballoo around certain tweets that were sent, it was basically preparing for that possibility.”
Among the tweets Bethel’s referring to was one of his very own:
“If, in fact, this is the final season of Hart of Dixie, the show is left in a really good place… It’s really satisfying and I think that’s part of the reason the cast were feeling like this could be the end,” Bethel explained. “It was just like, oh my god, if this is over, then I’m saying goodbye to this friend of mine, this guy who I really adore.”
Porter posted several of his own sentimental snaps, including one of himself, Bethel, and Cress Williams (seen above) with the caption, “And that’s a wrap on the #3Amigos. Love these dudes. Proud of these dudes. #TearsWereShed #RealMenCry #HartOfDixie.” (Porter wasn’t lying about those hashtags — Bethel confessed he “was full-on waterworks” on his last day of filming.)
Related: 'Hart of Dixie’ Photo Gallery
Adding to cancellation buzz, another Porter post included the stunning exterior shot below along with the note, “And the sun set on #BlueBell. Thanks for an amazing 4 years.” Seriously, you guys, knock it off or we’re going to start crying right now.
"We aren’t canceled. We haven’t gotten a phone call from anybody at the network. But, if this was the end, then I think we all wanted to just pay it its proper due,” Porter insists. “It was a beautiful moment in time and we all wanted to make sure that people knew just how much this all meant to us.”
Still, even if the 10 episodes of Season 4 are as “satisfying” as both gentlemen promise, our inner Lemon Breelands aren’t about to just sit around and let the sun set on Hart of Dixie. We’re going to do the only thing we can do at this point: Call the Belles and make them watch!
“I would love to come back and be a part of Bluebell again — and there’s a chance — but we really need the support of the fans to be able to come back,” urges Porter. “If people don’t watch, then shows don’t come back, so we just need a little help.”
You heard the man! Get ready to show your support and watch Hart of Dixie when it returns to The CW in 2015.
