Zooey Deschanel & ‘New Girl’ Cast Saying Goodbye? Megan Fox Joining Season 5 A Desperate Move?

Is "New Girl's" season 5 the last one? Reports say that Zooey Deschanel's hit comedy series' viewership have decreased over the last few years. Was casting Megan Fox their way of reeling their audience back in?

Zooey Deschanel and the cast of "New Girl" may be the most adorable and the dorkiest gang on TV but they're not safe from losing their viewership. According to Slate, over the past four seasons, the show's following declined by about 2 million.

"Ten million people watched the first episode of New Girl, and about 8 million of them stuck around to watch Zooey Deschanel and her cadre of male roommates goof around for the rest of the season," the website reported.

According to the report, this was due to the lack of character development in Zooey Deschanel's character, Jess. The same rings true for the other characters in "New Girl" such as Schmidt, Winston and Nick.

"'New Girl' left its characters idling, less funny, less vital, trying and failing to recapture their original joie de vivre. Deschanel's Jess, in particular, suffers when she doesn't have a larger arc to play with," the website added.

And this particular fact seem to have dawned upon show creator, Liz Meriweather, who recently said that "New Girl" season 5 will be a season where Zooey Deschanel's and the other actors' characters will do a lot of "growing up," along with Megan Fox as a new addition.

"There's been a lot of really funny stuff we've done over the years with them being incredibly immature, but it felt like the right moment to let them take steps forward," Liz Meriweather told TV Guide. "We've been having an amazing time this season growing the characters, and it's resulted in more comedy, not less comedy."

Meanwhile, yet to be revealed is Megan Fox's impact on the show's ratings. According to reports, the "Transformers" star will appear on "New Girl" season 5 episode 6, when Zooey Deschanel's character is sequestered on jury duty.