The season one finale of American Horror Story, previously scheduled to be a two-hour episode on December 21 – OH NO, THAT’S TOO SOON! WE’RE NOT READY FOR IT TO BE OVER! – has been cut back to 90 minutes. Don’t panic, this is not a reflection of any lack of faith in the series by the network. It was mutually agreed upon by showrunner Ryan Murphy and the network, and it’s the result of just not having enough time to get a two-hour production ready for broadcast in time.

Deadline first reported the story, and gives the details as follows:

The trimming of the finale is a result of American Horror Story’s very aggressive production schedule which left no breathing room. The project was picked up to pilot in late February. Creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk couldn’t work on the pilot until they wrapped the second season of Glee, so it didn’t start shooting until late May. In a quick turnaround, FX picked up the pilot to series on July 18, and it was rushed to production 2 weeks later to make the Oct. 5 premiere date. With the first episode after the pilot doing some reshoots and some of the episodes requiring 8-day shoots vs. the standard 7 because of complex scenes, production on the series is now at a point where Episode 13 would wrap on Dec. 15, leaving no time for post-production to make the Dec. 21 air date. And because of the holidays, it didn’t make sense to push that last episode to Dec. 28 or the new year. Murphy had been discussing the issue with FX president John Landgraf for the past few weeks. There was an option for the series to drop the 13th episode altogether and air an hourlong finale, but I hear Murphy was able to put together a plan for a 90-minute episode to give viewers a satisfying ending.

Yowie, there was a chance we might have lost an entire hour?! Whew, that’s one ax-to-the-midsection avoided.

American Horror Story airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.