This news is sure to make any fan of Breaking Bad disappointed. Late last night The Los Angeles Times revealed that ongoing talks between AMC (the cable channel) and Sony (the producer) for a fifth season are not going well.

The worst piece of news is that AMC wants the fifth (and possibly final) season to be cut to 6 – 8 episodes!

Breaking Bad’s creators are unsurprisingly not happy with this idea, so they are now shopping the show around to another networks:

Discussions grew heated when AMC tried to convince the makers of of the show that its fifth season run only six to eight episodes instead of the typical 13. That was rejected by the creative forces behind the show, which led them to approach other outlets.

“Breaking Bad” is not the only show AMC is looking to trim costs on. “The Walking Dead,” which became a big hit for the network, is having its per-episode budget cut by about $250,000. Last week the show’s executive producer Frank Darabont left, and there is speculation that the budget cuts were the reason. People close to AMC deny that was the case.

AMC’s push to lower costs on “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” comes as the price of its signature hit “Mad Men” is expected to go up: “Mad Men” creator Matt Weiner landed a lucrative new deal to stay with the program for at least two new seasons.

In the unlikely event that “Breaking Bad” does move to another channel, the producers would probably have to agree to make additional seasons. It would be highly unusual for a network to commit to just one season of a show it acquires from another network.

As noted by this article this morning from The Hollywood Reporter, AMC has had growing pains as of late. A few months ago there was the very public fight over Mad Men‘s future, then came the departure of The Walking Dead‘s Darabont (as noted above) just last week.