Discovery’s Mythbusters given a final season

Discovery Channel’s longest-running series, Mythbusters, will come to an end after a final, fourteenth, season.

The show’s send-off run will start on Discovery in the US in mid-January.

The pop-science series bowed on Discovery 13 years ago. It is fronted by special effects artists Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who carry out wild scientific experiments, putting commonly held myths to the test. Guests over the years have included US President Barak Obama.

At the end of its next season, the show will have run to 248 episodes and 2,950 experiments will have been conducted.

Discovery will run the finished episodes of Mythbusters on its Science Channel after the Discovery run ends in 2016.

“Adam and Jamie are enormous talents who have brought learning and science to the forefront of this network, and their legacy will continue to live on over at Science Channel,” said Rich Ross (pictured), group president, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Science Channel.

“I never dreamed we would be on television at all, much less for such a long time and with so much praise for keeping a thought provoking show on the air. And best of all, we were able to do what we do and still have all our fingers and toes,” said Hyneman.

Beyond produces and distributes Mythbusters, and John Luscombe, general manager and executive VP of Beyond Productions said: “For 14 years Adam and Jamie have given blood, sweat, tears and more to Mythbusters. Their unique personalities and extraordinarily diverse skill sets have literally redefined science television.”

The show is one of Beyond’s biggest earners, but the Australia-listed TV company said that the Mythbusters cancellation will not impact its 2016 results.

“It is not expected this decision will materially impact the financial results of Beyond in the 2016 financial year,” Beyond said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange. “The company has a number of new series in development and pre-production to be commissioned that will mitigate the financial impact of Mythbusters series production coming to an end.”