House Season 9: What Would Have Happened If The Series Hadn't Ended

Welcome to What Would Have Happened Next, a recurring feature in which TVLine breaks down the plot twists, character developments, story arcs, and major moves that would've taken place... if only your favorite TV shows hadn't been canceled.

Unlike many of the shows featured in this column, the Fox classic "House" got an ending, concluding its eight-season run with a proper (if divisive) series finale in May 2012, which saw Hugh Laurie's cantankerous Dr. Gregory House fake his death — yes, to avoid prison time, but also to be by his best bud Wilson's side for however many months Wilson had left after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. 

At the time, TVLine asked series creator David Shore what he pictured House doing once Wilson was dead. "I don't know," he answered. "That's way down the road. And that's not what [the series finale] was about. The story is the story. And the story ends when the story ends." 

But that hasn't stopped fellow executive producer Katie Jacobs from revealing what would've happened next.

Though "House" ended definitively with Season 8, there was a game plan in place for a hypothetical Season 9 — one that would have taken Princeton-Plainsboro's resident medical genius far outside his comfort zone, and for much longer than his previous stints in a psychiatric hospital or prison.

In a GQ oral history, executive producer Katie Jacobs revealed that if "House" had gone on for one more season, the creative team envisioned a shortened run of episodes that would have followed House as he practiced medicine without a license in a small town.

"Season 9 was going to be was based on a piece that I read in The New Yorker about a pharmacist in a small, forgotten town called Nucla," Jacobs said. "House no longer had his medical license but he's practicing medicine in a pharmacy because the hospitals are all shut down and there's no place for anyone to go for help here. 

Essentially, he [would have been] the local pharmacist, doctor, psychiatrist, and secret keeper of that town," the EP explained. "It was going to be 13 episodes and out — a very cowboy-ish, Western kind of thing."

When "House" ended in May 2012, TVLine asked series creator David Shore if he could ever see himself revisiting the iconic character. Shore seemed open to the possibility, though he viewed the odds as "slim." However, this was years before the wave of reboots and revivals that would come to dominate the television landscape.

"I love this character. And I know Hugh loves this character," he told TVLine. "I keep it open, but the chances of that happening from a practical point of view are slim. I would hate to lock in my head, 'I will never revisit this character again.' That would be a depressing idea to me."

More recently, Shore was asked by Entertainment Weekly what he thought Dr. House would be up to these days, but he was hesitant to say too much in case a revival ever comes to fruition.

"I don't want to pin myself down," he answered. "Because, I mean, every now and again, it does cross my mind that I would like to explore that, and so I'd have to figure out how I'd explore that.... I like the idea that other people are thinking of that too. And I hate to tell them, 'No, he's doing something else.' He's out there doing something House-like. Which I love that House-like became a bit of a phrase."

But he did rule out one possible storyline: picking up with House and Wilson after they took their motorcycles and hit the open road.

"You'd have to have the right story," he said of a continuation. "A great story that we were really happy with, and schedules would have to align, which is in a weird way the much more difficult task."

Shore has since gone on to create another long-running medical drama, ABC's "The Good Doctor," which aired for seven seasons and concluded in 2024.