Say goodbye to the Gilmore Girls.

The CW and Warner Bros. announced Thursday the show will end at the close of this season on May 17.

Alexis Bledel as Rory Gilmore, left, and Lauren Graham as Lorelai Gilmore in a scene from Gilmore Girls. The show is ending after seven seasons.
(Warner Bros./Associated Press)

Gilmore Girls, starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel as a single mother and her daughter trying to make their way in the world, was a hit for the fledgling WB network.

Last year it moved to the CW network created by the merger of WB and UPN.

Lorelai Gilmore, played by Graham, and her equally bright and beautiful daughter (Bledel) were known for their rapid-fire dialogue.

"Getting the language perfect requires a number of takes that you might not have on another show," Graham said in a January interview.

The CW locked in Gilmore Girls when the new network was created and few other shows have had the same success with young, female viewers.

But executive producer Amy Sherman-Palladino left the show and this season, the seventh, has attracted fewer than four million viewers for most episodes.

"Gilmore Girls helped define a network and created a fantastic storybook world featuring some of television's most memorable, lovable characters," CW and the studio said in a joint statement announcing the cancellation.

Networks will be announcing their new seasons toward the end of May. The cancellation of family drama 7th Heaven on CW was announced earlier this year and both Veronica Mars and Supernatural are believed to be struggling.

With files from the Associated Press