Producers share the secret to a TV shows longevity

Last week Fox renewed Bones for a 10th season, guaranteeing the quirky procedural starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz would live to see its 200th episode and with no mention of No. 10 being its final go-round.

Its an unlikely milestone for a show that has endured multiple moves around the schedule and speculation for the past few seasons about its probable end date.

They always say every year that they expect it to be the last and then they look around and realize the Bones audience is actually growing, executive producer Stephen Nathan tells The Post. We dont quite understand it either. A decade seems like an awfully long time. We will be prepared for a series-ender but we will plan on a season-ender.

On the air since 2005, Bones is Foxs third most-watched drama, averaging 9.1 million viewers behind newer entries The Following (11.2 million viewers) and Sleepy Hollow, (11 million viewers).

And its hardly the only graying drama refusing to quietly retire. For all the buzz that younger, sexier series like Scandal and The Blacklist (rightly) generate, an older class of drama veterans is quietly drawing an equal audience after a decade on the air.

CBS long-running NCIS is the poster child for a drama only growing stronger with age the Mark Harmon headliner still draws an average of 21.8 million viewers a week in its 11th season and is prepping a possible New Orleans-set spinoff (it already has NCIS: LA).

Criminal Minds, which will air its 200th episode on Feb. 5, is averaging an impressive 13 million viewers in its ninth season while the networks oldest series, CSI (14 seasons), still draws 12 million viewers a week.

Greys Anatomy stars Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey recently signed new two-year deals, increasing the likelihood that the ABC medical drama will reach a 12th season. And with good reason though its no longer the networks most-watched drama, at an average of 12.7 million viewers its just behind Scandal (13 million viewers) and Castle (12.9 million viewers its getting up there itself at six seasons).

If theres a secret to keeping a show alive for so many seasons, it seems to be create a family of characters that viewers want to have in their living room year after year, say producers.

People have really connected with those characters, says Criminal Minds showrunner/executive producer Erica Messer. And then on top of that, I think that fans tune in every week because of the battle between good and evil its almost that simple. Out of 200 episodes, about 195 of them weve stopped the bad guy and theres been a satisfying end to that weeks journey.

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Producers share the secret to a TV shows longevity