ABC's hit TV series Desperate Housewives look set to get a major revamp and it heads into its fifth series next year. The series has slipped by a few million viewers in the US, after being off-air for 3 months because of the writers' strike, but still attracts a solid 16 million viewers.

The Desperate Housewives and their families have just been through a major shakeup, with a Tornado devastating homes and lives in Wisteria Lane in a special double episode.

But show creator Marc Cherry has an even bigger shakeup in mind for next year, but rumours growing that the show will make a "five year jump" in the final episode, continuing from that point next season.

There's conflicting views on whether the television jump will go forwards or backwards, but either option will mean the end of the road for some cast members.

The main four housewives seem safe... Gabrielle (Eva Longoria), Lynette (Felicity Huffman), Bree (Marcia Cross), and Susan (Teri Hatcher)... but Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) looks set to leave the neighbourhood.

Apparently Marc Cherry told Huffman that what he's got planned has "never been done on TV, and Wisteria Lane would never be the same"... That would indicate either a jump back in time, or simply that Cherry doesn't watch CW's teen drama One Tree Hill, which jumped forward in time by 4 1/2 years for its Season 5. (Meanwhile, another popular ABC Lost has used both "flash backs" and "flash forwards" in recent years).

A rewind of time would likely see series narrator Mary Alice "come back from the dead", but would also force the exit of the Lane's younger residents, and the suburb's more recent arrivals.

However, some entertainment websites remain confident Desperate Housewives is planning to leap 5 years in the future at the end of Season Four, with Bree's son Andrew to be seen shacking up with one of Wisteria Lane's house-husbands.