Thousands of fans of the highly acclaimed AMC crime drama "Breaking Bad" were overjoyed, when recent reports claimed that the multi-award winning TV series will return for another season and will start filming from January 2015. However, it has now emerged that this was a hoax.
The false story, circulated by National Report among others, claimed that Vince Gilligan, the creator of the show, revealed his plans to revive the popular series.
"Breaking Bad fans around the world are celebrating the stunning, glorious and amazing news announced today: Walter White is not dead, and there will indeed be a sixth season of the wildly-popular, award-winning AMC drama," the hoax stated.
"Walter White is not dead, and neither is Breaking Bad. We've kept it under wraps for months, now the cat's out of the bag. Season 6 is coming, and it's going to be epic and true to the fans that have followed the show so incessantly," the report quoted Gilligan as saying.
The publication even carried fabricated quotes from the show's lead actor Bryan Cranston, confirming the return rumours as true.
As expected, thousands of "Breaking Bad" fans believed the news and shared it on their social media accounts, enabling the story to gain traction.
Most people do not know that the National Report is a 'satirical' website and has often been blamed for fabricating stories. According to The Independent, the site used to carry the following disclaimer, which was removed recently.
"DISCLAIMER: National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental . The views expressed by writers on this site are theirs alone and are not reflective of the fine journalistic and editorial integrity of National Report."
Meanwhile, in the Emmys 2014, "Breaking Bad" won a total of five awards, including its second consecutive prize for Outstanding Drama Series.
"If anyone deserves Emmy bookends, it's Vince Gilligan. He's family, and he taught us all to never underestimate chemistry," NYT quoted Charlie Collier, president of AMC.