Edie Remains Fifth Wheel!

[ChrisSumnerMatheson]

Edie will stay a fifth wheel
Because of viewers' (read: male viewers') strong reaction to Sheridan, her character next season will be given a never-before-seen ex-husband and a 6-year-old son. But Cherry insists that Edie will continue serving only as a spoiler to complicate the other women's lives.

The opening credits next year will continue to feature only the faces of Hatcher, Cross, Huffman and Longoria.

Recognizing the international name value that Sheridan brings to the show, Hatcher would prefer to make the foursome a quintet. "As the woman who works with Nicollette more than anyone else," she says, "I find it uncomfortable to sometimes include Nicollette and sometimes exclude Nicollette. She's my friend, and I feel awkward for her."

Calling from home, where she's wrestling a candle out of her puppy's mouth while madly packing for a weeklong getaway to an exotic locale to celebrate fiancé Nicklas Soderblom's 40th birthday, Sheridan says she realizes "Edie's an outsider. She's never going to be one of them. But as far as looking at the show as a whole, I see her as one of the five desperate housewives."

While also a champion of Sheridan's work, Cross believes "it's nice for the duration of the show to watch the paths of the four women. I think (the foursome) is the through line."

That is, if all four agree to stay put on Wisteria Lane.

"My goal would be to always have the four women stay with the show until the very end, and follow their journeys much in the way Sex and the City or Golden Girls did," says Cherry, a former writer for Golden Girls.

"But I'm also cognizant that at any point, one of these women could say, 'I want to go home and be with my kids,' or 'I want to go off and be a movie star.' "

Legally, Hatcher says that decision is not really up to any of them. "I guarantee you we all signed five- or six-year contracts at the beginning of this thing," she says.

[AaronA]

I think Cherry is smart - Edie is a great character but that is because she is not on it all the time. Small doses sometimes mean more....

As, for the 4 leads - the only one who I think would leave would be the actress who plays Gabrielle...she is at the age where she may want to try film work.

[JT]

I'm with AaronA here. Edie is an awesome character, and I think we should see more of her, but at little doses. Next year, we'll see her ex and her son, but hopefully, not every episode, so we can love to hate Edie instead of just hating her.

[jake_hanson]

Edie's great as she is now, did you see her with Bree. She got Bree to think about what she was doing. And last week, she helped Lynette with her problem. But the only thing is that Edie doesn't have anything she could help Gabrielle with.