BONES 'Likely' to End After 10th Season on Fox

The end of Booth and Bones may be in sight.

Fox chairman, Kevin Reilly, confirmed today at TCA that the network's long-running series BONES will "likely" end after its tenth season.

"We're negotiating on Bones for season 10, and I expect it will be back," said Reilly, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Despite its shift to Friday nights last year, BONES has proven to be a strong draw for Fox, continuously performing well in the key Adult 18-49 demo

BONES is inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs.

At the conclusion of Season Eight, tech genius and serial killer Christopher Pelant (guest star Andrew Leeds) once again returned to toy with the Jeffersonian team. Viewers were left hanging as Pelant forced SPECIAL AGENT SEELEY BOOTH (David Boreanaz) to call off his engagement to DR. TEMPERANCE BRENNAN (Emily Deschanel), threatening the lives of innocent people if he went through with the marriage or even told her why he was turning her down.

Season Nine will begin with Brennan questioning the viability of her relationship with Booth. Booth will be forced to win back her trust without revealing the reason for turning down her marriage proposal. But despite Pelant's nefarious efforts to thwart their nuptials, the wedding that fans have been waiting for will take place this season.

In the series, Brennan is a highly skilled forensic anthropologist who works at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and writes novels on the side. When the standard methods of identifying a body are useless (ie. the remains are so badly decomposed, burned or destroyed), law enforcement calls on Brennan for her uncanny ability to read clues left behind in the victim's bones.

While most people can't handle Brennan's intelligence, her drive for the truth or the way she flings herself headlong into every investigation, Booth is an exception. A member of the FBI's Homicide Investigations Unit, and a former Army sniper, Booth mistrusts science and scientists - the "squints," as he calls them - who pore over the physical evidence of a crime. But even he cannot deny that the combination of his people-smarts and Brennan's scientific acumen makes them a formidable duo, both professionally and personally.

Aside from Booth, Brennan is most comfortable with her equally brilliant colleagues at the Jeffersonian's Medico-Legal Lab. ANGELA MONTENEGRO (Michaela Conlin), an artist who specializes in reconstructing facial features and crime scenes, is Brennan's earthy and bawdy best friend. Angela is married to and has a son with DR. JACK HODGINS (TJ Thyne), affectionately known as "the slime and bug guy," a conspiracy theorist and expert on insects, spores and minerals. DR. CAMILLE "CAM" SAROYAN (Tamara Taylor), the street-smart and centered coroner, must wrangle all the geniuses under her purview. Lending his professional expertise to Brennan and Booth is DR. LANCE SWEETS (John Francis Daley), a brilliant young FBI psychologist who is equally adept at profiling murderers and providing impromptu therapy to his co-workers.