When it started in mid-2012, it was hoped that The Newsroom would do for journalism what its writer Aaron Sorkin had done for politics with The West Wing.
But Sorkin's depiction of life in a fictional US cable news outfit, one which showed reporting on actual real-life stories, won mixed reviews on its first season.
Sorkin turned down the sanctimony on the second series and the reviews got better as the characters became more intriguing.
But backers HBO are now calling time on the show after a final six-episode season.
The final series takes place five months after the previous season and will mix up real-life news events - like the Boston Marathon - with issues facing the ACN network, like a possible takeover and the fall-out from receiving confidential US Government documents from an Edward Snowden-like source.
