Will the sixth season of Supernatural be a letdown?

There was a flurry of Supernatural news today. First, the show was renewed for a sixth season, and then Eric Kripke announced he was stepping down as showrunner. We've heard over and over again that the show was only planned for five seasons, so the whole Lucifer thing should be wrapped up by the end of the season.

While Kripke will be involved, he won't be doing the daily hands on duties. He can't be attributed to the success of the show, but his extraordinary vision made the show as great as it is. The end of the arc means the start of a new one. From there, anything can happen. Shows have both succeeded and failed past their expiration date though I would say failure is the more common outcome.

There's still plenty of time before a new season--the apocalypse story hasn't even taken off--so don't worry yet. It's just something to think about among the hundreds of other television stories that will happen between now and September.