What the heck, 'Eureka'??

"I can tell you some stuff, I mean, what are they going to do, fire us?"

Colin Ferguson, who stars as Sheriff Carter on the penultimate season finale of Syfy's original series, "Eureka" tonight, has known for a while that the end was coming for his show.

Back in early August, he read reports online that "Eureka" had been canceled.

It started with a tweet: "This is gonna be a great ending to a show that changed my life. I'm grateful, humbled and appreciative and will never forget it. Luv u guys," Ferguson tweeted on August 4.

Then he took it back, sort of: "Apparently the news story I read isn't necessarily true.... We live in a weird digital age... Checking with Syfy as we speak."

Then @syfy joined in on August 5: "Although we don’t have a commitment beyond 6 episodes for the 6th season, we’re hopeful this will not be the end of the franchise. #eureka." Even going so far as to tweet "So for #Eureka, season 4.5 is airing now & we've already announced a season 5 & 6, plus a holiday episode. Hope that clarifies things!"

But then on August 9 there was the official statement from the company:

After painstaking consideration, we have had to make the difficult business decision to not order a season six of Eureka. But Eureka is not over yet. There is a new holiday episode and 12 stellar episodes set to debut next year, marking its fifth season and six memorable years on Syfy. The 2012 episodes are some of the best we've seen, and will bring this great series to a satisfying end. We are very grateful to Bruce Miller and Jaime Paglia, their team of incredible writers, and an amazing cast and crew who have consistently delivered a series we continue to be proud of. We thank the fans for their support of this show and know they will enjoy its final season in 2012."

And that's when things started to get less than awesome. Felicia Day, who plays Dr. Holly Marten on the show tweeted, "Um...wow. So I guess @SyFy changed their minds and is UNpicking up Eureka..uh? huh. Now it's awkward :(" Then she deleted the tweet, replacing it with, "At any rate, it's been very fun to be on the show! Hope they can end the story with closure for the fans before the series ends. :)"

Their co-star and prolific nerd writer, Wil Wheaton dedicated a post in his blog to the unceremonious news.

"The problem is protocol," Ferguson said.

"No one at the network is allowed to tell you, by law. It has to come through business affairs and it has to come to your lawyers or to your agents. So the problem is, you have a whole department at a company who knows, who then tells every lawyer in town. Every lawyer in Los Angeles knows and every agent in town knows. So all of a sudden 500 people know and none of the cast knows. So all of a sudden deadline.com knows and that’s how it sort of leaks out and you’ll never be able to stop it."

"It’s not malicious in any way, shape or form it’s just the nature of the beast," he said. Ferguson has made a point to let everyone know how grateful he and the cast are for the opportunity to be on "Eureka."

"That’s show business," said Chris Gauthier, who plays a genius chef, Vincent, on the show. "That’s kind of the way it goes. So you’re kind of prepared, I think, at any time for something to go south." But much like fans of the show for the last seven years, the cast was taken by surprise by the cancellation.

"I think [fans of the show and the actors] have a very similar experience in that we’ve both grown with the characters," said Jordan Hinson, who plays Sheriff Carter's genius daughter, Zoe.

"For me it was starting on the show when I was 13 years old and now I’m 20. So I’ve grown up on it. I think that’s the hardest part, it’s like I’m saying goodbye to my childhood. I think we have a similar experience because they grow attached to the charaters and the relationships just as we do, especially with other actors. We’re a family."

Gauthier agreed. "You work with primarily the same people for seven years, so it’s tough. It was a real tearjerker, I didn’t expect it to hit me as hard as it did. This is OK, I know what this is, I’ve done it before, I’ve been wrapped from a show before, but this was completely different. It just totally disarmed me. It was a special show," he said.

Even relatively new characters on "Eureka" were deeply affected by the news.

Ferguson said Wheaton, who plays the not-so-nice Dr. Isaac Parrish, was emotional. "We wrapped at the same time, we were in the same scene. He was a mess. He was really upset. He was such a part of our family but for him to feel it was great. I mean, he’s so genuine."

And tonight, "Eureka" is one step closer to ending with its next-to-last season closer tonight. Ferguson said fans can expect some catharsis in the final episode's writing (set to air in 2012).

"There’s a metaphor that goes on in the last episode which has a lot to do with the show closing, the dialogue reflects that in a certainly entertaining way. In a way that I thought we were going to get in trouble for. But no one stopped it," he said.

Aside from closure, Ferguson admitted he now also has in his possession the Sheriff Carter name plate and the sheriff's badge.

Gauthier, on the other hand, is dreaming of his apron. "I’m just waiting, I’m doing it the legal way. I hope to get an apron. Colin obviously has more clout on set than what I have," he said.