Alan Ball is stepping down as the head writer of “True Blood”.

I’m not entirely sure how much this will impact the upcoming 5th Season of HBO’s flagship sex and vampires odyssey. I do know that the show resumed production in November, so I have to assume that the majority of the upcoming season is pretty much mapped out. The show’s luxurious (around 14 days per episode) production schedule would allow for around 7 or so segments to be in the can. So it’s safe to say that the remaining 5 are outlined at the very least and the majority of them are scripted.

Not much reason has been given for Ball’s departure from the position (he will remain on the show in some capacity, I’m guessing as a producer) except for “exhaustion”. While that’s often PR code-speak for too much hard partying – but I don’t really think that’s the case here. Perhaps Ball is literally exhausted by pushing the show to ridiculous extremes? I don’t imagine he envisioned it being as patently ridiculous as it’s become when he was first getting it off the ground in 2007-2008.

Per Forbes, “Sookie and her pals from HBO’s True Blood are losing their creator. Alan Ball, I have confirmed, will step down from being headwriter of the show about sexy vampires mixing it up in New Orleans. Explanations include exhaustion, and maybe that the show seemed like it had tired blood last season. Ball will still be with the show, I’m told, but a new regime will guide the fates of the characters into their new season. This could also very well be a money issue, as series tend to get more and more expensive as they drag on.”