'Mistresses' season 5 canceled news update: Unsatisfactory ratings killed series, but showrunner teases Karen's possible storyline

"Mistresses" season 4 ended on a cliffhanger, with Karen's fate hanging in the balance. However, those hoping that "Mistresses" season 5 will reveal whether Karen lived through her fall or not are in for heartbreaking news: ABC just canceled the series.

The cancellation news comes as a bit of a shock to fans and viewers of the show especially since season 4's finale seemingly set the tone for a possible fifth season.

To recap, season 4 ended with Karen (Yunjin Kim) purportedly falling to her death. However, not a single one of her friends saw her dead body. Moreover, her "ashes," which were supposed to be shipped to her brother in Korea, never reached their destination.

In the final scenes of the finale, April (Rochelle Aytes) saw someone dressed in one of Karen's signature ensembles, and even the barista in the coffee house she, Karen, and Joss (Jes Macallan) frequented said her BFF was just there. Finally, someone whom April can't clearly see introduced herself as "Karen Kim" and asked April to help her with something very important.

It seems fans will never know whether Karen died or if she lived through her fall. Nevertheless, in a recent interview with TV Line, "Mistresses'" executive producer, Rina Mimoun, dished on the possible storyline the show will have used if it were given a fifth season, making it clear that the "Karen Kim" who introduced herself to April was not Lydia (Karen's ex-nanny-stalker).

"It's not Lydia. I'll give you that much. We can start a new theory percolating because the Lydia one is not it. We would be going into full 'Days of Our Lives' 'Marlena turns into the devil' territory, which we're not prepared to do. This is a summer series, but come on," she said.

Mimoun further said she's "still absorbing" "everyone's mad hate for the finale."

The fate of the series wasn't in her hands, anyway. Apparently, ABC decided to cancel the series due to unsatisfactory ratings. According to Zap2It's TV by the Numbers, the season 4 finale of "Mistresses" only had a 0.6/2 rating/share among the 18-49 demographics, with 2.57 million viewers.

The figures were way below the season 3 numbers for the series, which will explain why "Mistresses" season 5 was canceled.