A day after igniting worries that “30 Rock” will end after the 2011-2012 season, Alec Baldwin used his status as an unpaid blogger for the Huffington Post to diffuse it.
“Gosh,” Baldwin wrote. “I want to take the opportunity to state that although my days on network TV may be numbered, I hope '30 Rock' goes on forever. Or at least as long as everyone involved desires.
“Next year hopefully won't be the last. Kenneth can run the network,” he continued. “Jenna will get her own talk show. Tracy will become Mayor of New York. Then resign to go raise exotic reptiles. And Lemon will go do…. just about anything she sets her mind to.”
Baldwin added: “Here's to five more seasons.”
Also read: Slow Down, Alec Baldwin: No Plans to End '30 Rock'
The actor told New York Magazine's Vulture at a fundraising gala in New York on Tuesday that "next year is our last year of the show."
"I will tell you one thing," he said, according to the site. "And that is our show next year is our last year of the show. … Our contracts are expired [in 2012], and Tina [Fey] is gonna have a big career directing films and writing. She's going to be the next Elaine May. She'll be great."
But an NBC insider told TheWrap on Wednesday that there have been no talks about the show ending.
Baldwin has long said he would leave the show in 2012, and expressed that is "very, very interested" in running for office.
There is one other wrinkle to the "30 Rock" situation, however: Fey announced in an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday that she is five months pregnant with her second child. Fey's "30 Rock" co-star, Jane Krakowski, is also pregnant.
Not that the pregnancies need affect the show — one executive producer has already told Entertainment Weekly that Krakowski's won't be written in.
And Fey can always hide behind the usual creative props, if need be. Or Baldwin's Jack Donaghy could turn out not to be the only new parent at "30 Rock."