OC to be axed lmao about time!!

The once-hot teenage television soap opera, The O.C., has been cancelled after too many viewers switched off.

The final episode of the television drama will air on February 22 in the United States, Fox TV and Warner Bros Television Production said.

The finale "will deliver real closure to the series, to the story we began telling four years ago", series creator Josh Schwartz said in a statement.

"It will be fun and emotional and I think really satisfying. It is the finale we always planned to do."

The O.C. is aired by Network Ten in Australia, and is shown within days of its US broadcast.

Based in the affluent Orange County city of Newport Beach in California, The O.C. was a big hit in its first season, in 2003-04, attracting a total audience of nearly 10 million in the US.

The show's story lines revolved around Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie), an outsider thrust into a heady new world of money and sex, and rich high school kids including Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) and their families.

The show did not sustain its momentum, dropping to about 7 million weekly viewers during 2004-05 and then to fewer than 6 million last season.

Since returning in November, it has drawn only about 4 million viewers.

The third season finale's high drama, in which Marissa was killed in a car crash, did not turn the series around.

This year, Ryan confronts the death of his one-time girlfriend and the man who caused it.

Others in the show's cast include Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Melinda Clarke, Rachel Bilson and Autumn Reeser.

Former Neighbours star Alan Dale also featured in the first two seasons.