David Farnor | On 18, Apr 2016

Louis C.K. has officially announced the end of his web series, Horace and Pete.

The show, which arrives online in January 2016 with no warning or promotion whatsoever, has swiftly become one of the most interesting – and perhaps one of the most important – shows of the year. C.K. released episodes globally through his own site every week for between $2 and $5, telling the story of a family-owned bar in Brooklyn.

Those who have seen the story all the way to its conclusion will have guessed that Episode 10 is its last chapter, but now, the comedian, actor and director has officially confirmed the series will not return. He THR. “When I got to episode four, I was like, ‘Hey gang, I don’t have any money.’ So I had to take out a line of credit.”

The stand-up comic is now beginning to promote the show more heavily to pay off the debt – he reportedly started with his own personal investment of $2 million to fund production costs, including an impressive cast of Steve Buscemi, Alan Alda, Steve Wright, Kurt Metzger, Jessica Lange and Edie Falco. He has said that if he promotes the series and the audience continues to grow at the rate it has, Horace and Pete will have “paid itself off” by the summer.

C.K. also told viewers, however, that it was “a singular experience” to have done the show.

“I loved telling that/those story(ies). I loved working in that (fake) bar with that crew for those ten weeks,” C.K. wrote.

“I chose to do the show this way, knowing that it would be a quiet and strange experiment and that only a few of us would take part in this stage of it, that has just ended. The creating, unfolding and watching of the show, one episode at a time, from nothing. I am grateful to all of you that took this trip with me the way that you did, not knowing what you were getting, how much you were getting or how it would all feel. I was right there with you. I didn’t know how any of this would go or feel.

“I’m grateful to the TV critics that got out in front and wrote so thoughtfully about the show and the experience. I enjoyed reading it. After we shot the last episode, the cast crew and I put real beer on the taps at Horace and Pete’s and we had a drink and we talked. I don’t think we’ll ever experience anything like that show again. I miss all of them.”

Hopefully, though, we haven’t heard the last of the programme: Horace and Pete will be submitted to this year’s Emmy Awards, both in the drama category and in the lead and supporting acting categories.

“Now I’ll go and tell the world about it, and ask them to come see what we made. I’m excited because I’ve been dying to talk about it. It was so fun and so goddam weird, what I just went through. And it continues to be so,” he emailed fans. “Sorry ahead of time for how annoying it will be to see me and hear me yammering about this show and promoting it, flying in the face of the whole idea of watching a show from nothing and seeing where it goes. But I want folks to see this show.”

You can read on at the bottom for the full email.

Horace and Pete is available to stream and download from Louis C.K.’s website in up to 1080p in any country. You can catch up with our reviews of Horace and Pete here.

Hi. So. That was it. I didn’t want to say, in the last email, that it was the last episode. Because I didn’t want you to know, as you watched the episode, that it would be the last one. But yeah, obviously, That was it.