Marc Cherry said the decision to end "Desperate Housewives" was a mutual one between him and ABC and that he's glad to finish the show in "the classiest way possible."
"We made this decision together," he said at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Sunday. "We decided that this was the right time."
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Cherry said he and ABC entertainment president Paul Lee began talking a year ago about when to end the show, and that he was initially ambivalent about whether to end it after eight or nine seasons. But he wanted to make sure the show didn't outstay its welcome, he said.
Lee also said Sunday that Cherry's "Hallelujah," a pilot the network passed on this year, is being redeveloped and may get a second chance. Cherry said he had no timeline for the show.
Cherry said he asked ABC for more time to work on the pilot because "half of it was terrific and half of it wasn't."
"This is so complex, what I'm trying to do here," he said. "Give me the time to do it right. … You kind of have to get it perfect. It's a big swing."
Cherry said he's not interested in a "Housewives" spinoff, but was tempted when he told "Housewives" star Eva Longoria about the show's end, just because he wanted to keep working with her.
"I love Eva Longoria more than life itself," he said. "I said, 'I'm just gonna put you in a van and have you solve mysteries!'"