15 TV Shows That Jettisoned A Main Character (And How They Did It)

Movie productions have it so easy! They only need their actors for a short, specific window of time, and it’s pretty rare that they’d need to swap them out mid-production. Although… It has happened. TV, on the other hand, once they find a core collective of likable actors (with good chemistry), they pray to the heavens that each one of them returns year after year. Because, let’s face it, George Costanza dying in a car crash between seasons would really suck. Seinfeld did handle their “Susan issue” hilariously, so maybe they could’ve pulled it off.

Sadly, that’s the case for a lot of shows. Producers casted the hell out of their shows, and it was clearly a winning recipe, since their show was coming back year after year. Then… It happened. Infighting, social media tirades, or even sexual assault scandals forced their hand, and their star just had to go. The writers were blindsided, but they scrambled to write them or even kill them off immediately. Some did it masterfully, and some cobbled together some crap that really pissed fans off. So here’s why 15 TV shows had to ax a main character, and how they went about it.