The popular and steamy Orange County-based drama that stars Benjamin McKenzie, Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody begins its fourth season on November 2, 2006. Fans of the Fox’s The O.C.can expect to see a significant shift in the storylines now that the hot characters have left high school and one of them (Marissa played by Mischa Barton) has died.
Though the show has been a staple of Fox’s Thursday night schedule, the drama has been drawing far less interest and has garnered an average of a small 5.6 million viewers. The competition for viewers on that night is also expected to get far tougher. Between ABC’s popular Grey’s Anatomy, CBS juggernaut C.S.I., and NBC’s guilty-pleasure Deal or No Deal, it’s expected that The O.C. could have a really tough time holding onto its audience.
For its part, the network seems to be hedging its bets by only ordering 16 episodes for the fourth season. Because of a desire to run as few reruns of the drama as possible, the last episodes of the season could air by early 2007.
A Fox network exec has indicated that they’re keeping their options open. Fox has a number of other dramas in development to take The O.C.’s place on the schedule or is open to ordering additional episodes should the ratings warrant that. He also said that he believes creator Josh Schwartz and the members of the show’s creative team have lots more hot and steamy stories to tell.
Hopefully, the new stories will be enough to woo viewers away from the popular Thursday night competition. The fight for the show’s survival begins this fall. Stay tuned! 
how many episodes are there in each season could someone let me know?
Surprised to hear about seth being gay?!!…I was also interested to know if Marissa did actually die, but today i saw an advert after the repeat of the last show on t4 of season 3, it was advertising season 4 and it mentioned ryan summer etc going to the funeral of marissa, and included marissas mum and sister trying to get over her death and move on, with clips showing them acting, showing that they couldnt, with sandy talking to Julie and summer talking to someone aswell.
i dont think marissa is dead i think she is pregnet will volchecks baby and has paid off the doctors to tell her familly n frenz she is dead i reckon shes gone away to have the baby..she`ll be back, as for seth being gay i hope not but he is rather feminine… there has to be season 5
Omg i cant believe the oc is being cancelled it is lyk the best programme ever i love it sooooooo much and seth will not be gay, he is sooooooooo hot i love him loads !!
I hate that the OC is getting cancelled! This is the best TVseries ever, I just love it so much! Brazilian fans are very sad!
we should start a online petition
Seth will not be gay. That is the dumbest rumor I have heard.
I really don’t want fox to get rid of the OC, why don’t they just change what night it is on if they are worried about ratings? It’s starting to get interesting now that Taylor and Ryan are an item. I was worried this would happen after they killed Marissa off
the oc is only getting cancelled because of stupid greys anatomy!! 🙁 i LOVE the oc!! ughh im so sad….
I love the OC and seth cant be gay and Marissa cant be dead that would just ruin the whole show there has to be another sesaon. I Love this show way to much.
I can not believe that the show is going to be canceled. I feel that they should try moving it to a different night of the week first so therefore it will be given the opportunity it deserves…..
hey, i’m white. and seth is not gay you crazy mexian you.
i love this show! i don’t know what i would do if it got cancelled!
haha i love that this show is getting cancelled…too bad it took so long
hey im from lebanon n i watched the first 8 episodes in season 4 at the bigining it s really sad and dark but later it becomes beter.In those episodes seth isnt gay and marissa doen t come back,she s dead. seth and summer are engaged.