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The desperation is almost over.

ABC’s long-running TV show “Desperate Housewives” will end after its upcoming 8th season, creator Marc Cherry confirmed Sunday.

“One of the things you see in television is shows that overstay their welcome,” said Cherry. “People just forget about them and they’re unceremoniously booted off. I wanted to go off while we were still doing well,” he said.

The seventh season of “Desperate Housewives” was a top-20 show last year, averaging almost 12 million viewers per episode. That’s about half the number who watched it in its first two seasons, when it was TV’s hottest show.

The official last-season notice apparently came as a surprise to some of the cast members. As recently as last week, Eva Longoria said she expected two more years.

Cherry said he had personally spoken to “about half the people on the show” and that their reactions were “bittersweet – a touch of shock, but not completely.”

He said cast members uniformly told him they were grateful for what he had done for them and their careers.

“I threw it right back,” he said. “This show saved my life.”

Cherry said one of the storylines in the final season “will hark back to the beginning” and revisit the suicide of Mary Alice that triggered the whole show.

He said he has the season generally sketched out, including a finale that “will pay homage to everyone who has been on the show over the years.”

Cherry ruled out any spinoffs from “Desperate Housewives,” saying he wants to do different kinds of writing. He is now retooling an ABC pilot called “Hallelujah,” which the network will be assessing later this season.

This season of “Desperate Housewives” premieres Sept. 25.