It's been a tough week for television fans, as they've had to endure the announcement of a slew of series cancellations -- including that of ABC's popular primetime show Castle.

The network decided to pass on producing a ninth season of the venerable procedural drama that stars One Life to Live alum Nathan Fillion (ex-Joey Buchanan) as the title character, despite having closed one-year deals with Fillion and supporting stars Jon Huertas and Seamus Dever, TV Line reports.

As fans may recall, Katic's exit was announced last month, leading Fillion to express his love of his costar and the show. "Stana has been my partner all this time, and I thank her for creating the character of Beckett who will live on for all of us as one of the greatest police officers on television," he wrote. "Castle has been one of the greatest joys of my creative life, and I hope the show continues on for years to come."

According to TV Line, Castle's executive producer, Alexi Hawley, prepared an alternate closure-filled episode for Monday night's episode just in case the series wasn't renewed. The season finale will now become a series finale -- and fans reportedly get the ending they've wished for.

In other news, ABC also decided to cancel Nashville, which stars Guiding Light alum Hayden Panettiere (ex-Lizzie Spaulding) and General Hospital vet Jonathan Jackson (Lucky Spencer). Both cancellations come after ABC's new president, Channing Dungey, was said to be working to phase out the network's "soapy serials."

UPDATE:
Channing Dungey has offered comments on why Castle and Nashville were yanked from ABC's lineup. To read those statements, click here.

Are you devastated to hear ABC cancelled Castle? Would you love to see Fillion return to soaps? If so, which show do you think he'd be a good fit for? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.

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