'The Originals' season 4 air date, spoilers: Upcoming season to be show's last on The CW?

"The Originals" season 4 has been pushed to a midseason release early next year and the delay has given rise to a slew of cancellation rumors. Now there are speculations that "The Vampire Diaries" spin-off series may run its final season on The CW before transferring to a new network.

Unconfirmed reports about the show's possible transfer to ABC has been making rounds, owing to the noticeable reduction in the episode order and the continuous decline in the show's ratings during its third season. Could there be truth to the show's impending cancellation and would ABC really pick "The Originals" up should The CW decide to drop it?

Inquisitr argued that this seemed highly unlikely since no confirmation has been given yet and "The Originals" has already been suffering from extremely low viewer ratings. It would not make sense for ABC to pick the series up for a fifth season when it seems to also be struggling with its own low-rated shows. But with the impending conclusion of "The Vampire Diaries," it also seemed possible for "The Originals" to move on to a potentially better fate in another network.

Earlier this year, The CW's network president, Mark Pedowitz told TV Line via a conference call that moving the premier of the fourth season of "The Originals" to the midseason lineup was an attempt to "further boost" the network's midseason schedule. No official air date has been released yet, but there are speculations that the show may return sometime in January 2017.

"The Originals" season 4 will reportedly pick up five years after the events of the season 3 finale and that it will now feature Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and Hayley's (Phoebe Tonkin) daughter Hope (Summer Fontana) as a young girl with immense powers owing to her mixed lineage. She could also turn out to be her father's salvation.

Meanwhile, a one-liner teaser posted on Spoiler TV hinted on the arrival of a "new powerful entity" in episode seven of the upcoming season. This coincides with a revelation stated by executive producer Julie Plec about a "monster at large" seeking to wreak havoc in New Orleans. Plec had also hinted on a "thousand percent" possibility of a crossover between "The Originals" and its parent series, "The Vampire Diaries."

Here is the first look trailer for "The Originals" season 4 presented at the San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year.