9 actors who were written off TV shows amid behind-the-scenes controversy
9 actors who were written off TV shows amid behind-the-scenes controversy
Britt HayesFri, May 29, 2026 at 10:00 PM UTC
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Isaiah Washington, Shannen Doherty, Chevy Chase
Credit: Earl Gibson III/Getty; Neilson Barnard/Getty; Jamie McCarthy/Peacock via Getty
Actors leave TV shows all the time. Like dying, you hope the exit is natural — that their character gets written off when they reach the logical endpoint of their story, or that they leave amicably in search of new opportunities. But sometimes the exit isn't so organic, like when an actor gets involved in behind-the-scenes conflicts with colleagues. Or worse, a real-world controversy involving alleged misconduct.
The latter may or may not be the case for Tom Hardy, as recent reports claim the actor's allegedly unprofessional behavior is causing tension on the set of the Paramount+ crime drama MobLand. Sources close to production on the Paramount+ series have refuted these claims.
Behind-the-scenes controversies can have a sizable impact on a series’ direction, and there are several instances in which backstage drama has resulted in key characters being written out. Below, we take a look back at nine actors whose exits were anything but amicable.
01 of 08
Chevy Chase, Community
Chevy Chase on 'Community'
Credit: Jardin Althaus/NBC
Chevy Chase's reputation for being difficult precedes him — so much so that it's a significant part of the 2025 documentary I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not, which revisits the veteran star's highly publicized departure from the NBC sitcom Community in 2012. As Entertainment Weeklyreported at the time, Chase, who played the abrasive Pierce Hawthorne, was butting heads with showrunner Dan Harmon. While filming the fourth season, Chase reportedly used a racial slur in a conversation with Harmon, leading to his dismissal.
The incident was revisited in I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not, with director Jay Chandrasekhar explaining that it began with a storyline involving "blackface and a puppet," written for Chase's "tone-deaf character." Chase allegedly said something to costar Yvette Nicole Brown that the director did not hear. "I know that there was a history between [Chevy and Yvette] around race, and she got up and stormed out of there," Chandrasekhar said. "Chevy storms off, so the producer is like, ‘We need Yvette in the scene, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, she’s in the next scene.’ And he goes, ‘Well, she won’t come out unless Chevy apologizes to her.’”
When Chase returned to set, Chandrasekhar continued, "He goes, ‘You know, me and Richard Pryor, I used to call Richard Pryor the N-word, and he used to call me the Honky, and we loved each other,’" referring to the late comedian and Chase's former Saturday Night Live costar. According to Chandrasekhar, Chase seemed to think he didn't have anything to apologize for, and when the story leaked to the press, the actor had "a full meltdown."
In a 2018 interview with theNew Yorker, costar Donald Glover alleged that Chase often tried to disrupt filming by making racist and offensive jokes. As for Brown, following the release of Chase's documentary, she took to Instagram to share her only comment on the matter: "These are things I’ve never spoken of publicly and perhaps never will. Anyone currently speaking FOR or ABOUT me with perceived authority is speaking without EVER speaking to me about the things they claim to know about. They actually don’t really know me — at all."
Speaking about the incident with The New York Times in January 2026, Chase denied being racist. "It was too great a misunderstanding of what I was saying and not saying," he said. "I thought that there was at least one person — and another who, for some ungodly reason, didn't get me, didn't know who I was, or didn't realize for one second I'm not racist. They were too young to be aware of my work. Instead, there was some sort of visceral reaction from them."
02 of 08
Shannen Doherty, Charmed
Shannen Doherty on 'Charmed'
Credit: Peacock
Shannen Doherty's departure from the supernatural drama Charmed was anything but, well, you know. According to Doherty, she was fired from the series, in which she starred alongside Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano as three good witches destined to battle evil forces. Doherty directed her final episode, season 3's "All Hell Breaks Loose," in which her character Prue Halliwell dies.
The late actress' exit from the WB series in 2001 remained a point of contention in the two decades that followed, with rumors pointing to conflict between Doherty and Milano. In 2023, Combs appeared on Doherty's Let's Be Clear podcast, where the two finally cleared the air. Before they were cast on Charmed, Doherty and Combs were friends in real life and had lived together for a time following Combs' divorce. Both actresses agreed that the conflict began in season 2, when Milano and her mom drove a wedge between them. "It was really interesting of [her] trying to pull you away from me," Doherty said.
Doherty was stressed because her dad was "in and out of the hospital nonstop." Meanwhile, production on Charmed was paused so Combs could have surgery to remove a tumor. "Hospitals scared me to death. I waited 24 hours after your surgery to go and then it wasn’t even easy for me to get in. I was being told I couldn’t even get in," Doherty said. "Alyssa and her mom were blocking people from seeing you and at the time you didn’t know. I remember you texted me, ‘Dude are you going to come and see me?’"
Doherty continued, "[It] caused a weird divide between the two of us that continued throughout season 2. I think I cried every single night."
Combs appeared to support Doherty's version of events, and went on to claim that Milano was responsible for Doherty's firing. Recalling a conversation she allegedly had with a producer, Combs said, "He said, you know, 'We're basically in a position where it's one or the other. We were told [by Alyssa] that it's [Shannen] or me and Alyssa has threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment.'"
03 of 08
Daniel Dae Kim, Hawaii Five-0
Daniel Dae Kim on 'Hawaii Five-0'
Credit: Norman Shapiro/CBS
After Lost ended in 2010, Daniel Dae Kim stuck around Hawaii for a reboot of the classic TV procedural Hawaii Five-0, in which he played Lt. Det. Chin Ho Kelly. Unfortunately, after seven seasons on the series, Kim and costar Grace Park chose to exit — a decision that was pretty surprising to viewers, as Kim was the first actor cast in the reboot.
Kim addressed the decision in a social media post, telling fans that while he was "deeply thankful" to the cast and crew, "CBS and I weren't able to agree to terms on a new contract, so I made the difficult choice not to continue." He added, "As an Asian American actor, I know first-hand how difficult it is to find opportunities at all, let alone play a well developed, three dimensional character like Chin Ho. I will miss him sincerely."
Kim and Park were reportedly seeking pay raises to match the salaries of their costars Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan. In its official response, CBS claimed the actors were offered "large and significant salary increases" for season 8, though apparently not significant enough to match their peers. Kim went on to executive produce The Good Doctor, ABC's hit remake of the South Korean series of the same name.
04 of 08
Ruth Wilson, The Affair
Ruth Wilson on 'The Affair'
Credit: Ali Goldstein/SHOWTIME
Ruth Wilson played Alison Bailey for four seasons on The Affair, Showtime's steamy drama about marital infidelity and its surprisingly deadly consequences for two couples. When she made her seemingly abrupt exit in 2018, Wilson initially offered little explanation, noting only that it had nothing to do with pay or other job offers.
But in 2019, sources close to the production revealed the reasons for Wilson's exit in a damning report that alleged a hostile work environment, conflict between Wilson and showrunner Sarah Treem, and Wilson's frustrations with how frequently she was expected to appear nude. Sources claimed that Wilson, who was unable to comment due to an NDA, was labeled "difficult" on set for voicing her discomfort, and that she felt "pressured" by Treem to perform in nude scenes. At the time, Treem responded in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, saying, “I would never say those things to an actor. That’s not who I am. I am not a manipulative person, and I’ve always been a feminist.”
Treem published a lengthy essay in response shortly thereafter, in which she conceded that she and Wilson did not align on the narrative direction for Alison, though she denied pressuring the actress. "On a continuous basis throughout Ruth’s time on the show, I tried to protect her and shoot sex scenes safely and respectfully,” Treem wrote. “We didn’t agree on the choices of the character or whether or not a sex scene was necessary to advance the plot, but that is not the same thing as not respecting or supporting an actress’s need to feel safe in her work environment, which is something I always take incredibly seriously."
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In a narrative turn befitting the convoluted plot of the series, Girls creator Lena Dunham and her co-showrunner Jenni Konner became involved in the controversy, with Konner publishing a newsletter detailing an inappropriate interaction Dunham allegedly had with a director on The Affair. According to Konner, the director asked Dunham “to have dinner alone the following night with an actress on the show he works on. Not because he thought they should meet, but because he wanted Lena to persuade the actress to ‘show her t--s, or at least some vag’ on TV. Surely Lena could make a compelling argument.”
Treem appeared to confirm the story in her essay on Wilson's exit, writing that she "repeatedly urged Showtime to do something" about the incident. Ultimately, Treem said she was told to write Wilson out of the show.
05 of 08
Kevin Spacey, House of Cards
Kevin Spacey on 'House of Cards'
Credit: Patrick Harbron/Netflix
Kevin Spacey's departure from House of Cards is one of the more straightforward situations on this list. Spacey, who played the morally repellent politician Frank Underwood on the Netflix drama, was ousted from the series in 2017 not long after production began on the sixth and final season.
That October, actor Anthony Rapp came forward to allege that Spacey made unwanted sexual advances toward Rapp when he was 14 years old. Spacey issued a public apology, in which he also came out as gay following years of rumors and speculation about his sexuality. Netflix halted production on season 6 and issued a statement saying it would "not be involved with any further production of House of Cards that includes Kevin Spacey."
Not long after Rapp went public, additional allegations surfaced from eight people who worked on House of Cards and claimed that Spacey created a hostile work environment through sexual harassment and "predatory" behavior. Spacey's publicist responded by saying the actor was "taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment." For its part, Netflix said it had only been aware of one previous incident on set, which had been "resolved swiftly."
Rapp subsequently filed a lawsuit against Spacey, who was found not liable for battery following a three-week trial.
06 of 08
Katherine Heigl and Isaiah Washington, Grey's Anatomy
Isaiah Washington, Katherine Heigl on 'Grey's Anatomy'
Credit: Frank Ockenfels/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty (2)
Grey's Anatomy has weathered plenty of behind-the-scenes controversies over the years (Elisabeth Finch, anyone?), notably involving the departures of multiple actors from the medical drama. That includes Isaiah Washington, who played Dr. Preston Burke for three seasons before he was fired from the series after reportedly using a homophobic slur in reference to costar T.R. Knight during an argument with Patrick Dempsey. Though Washington apologized, he later repeated the slur while denying the incident occurred.
The incident prompted Knight to publicly come out as gay, later telling EW that showrunner Shonda Rhimes discouraged him from doing so (Rhimes denied this). Knight decided to leave the series not long after, during season 5. Washington later returned to the series as a guest star in season 10.
Katherine Heigl, who played Knight's onscreen paramour, Dr. Izzie Stevens, left Grey's Anatomy after season 6. Heigl won an Emmy for her performance in 2007, but made the surprising move to remove herself from contention the following year, saying she "did not feel that I was given the material this season" to justify a nomination. Heigl received backlash for the decision, which further fueled rumors that she was "difficult" to work with.
The actress later told EW she regretted her decision. "I am disappointed in myself for allowing that perception to exist," she said. "There's nothing more gross than [the idea of] somebody in my position being ungrateful... And I hope that in the coming years I can change people's minds about that. The six years [she spent on Grey's] were important years, and I don't want them to be demeaned."
Rhimes initially said she had no problems working with Heigl, but later told The Hollywood Reporter that her experience with the actress inspired her to adopt a “no a--holes policy” on Scandal.
07 of 08
Jeff Garlin, The Goldbergs
Jeff Garlin on 'The Goldbergs'
Credit: ABC/Scott Everett White
Jeff Garlin left The Goldbergs in 2021 after eight years playing family patriarch Murray on ABC's nostalgic '80s-set sitcom. The decision followed the network's internal investigation into multiple complaints about Garlin's allegedly inappropriate behavior on set. Garlin, who also starred in the Larry David HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, said that ABC's HR department actually investigated him three years in a row. EW confirmed that Garlin's exit was a mutual decision with the network.
In an interview with Vanity Fair about the allegations, Garlin avoided discussing specific instances when his behavior might have offended colleagues. "My opinion is, I have my process about how I'm funny, in terms of the scene and what I have to do. They feel that it makes for a quote 'unsafe' workspace," Garlin said. "Now, mind you, my silliness making an unsafe workspace — I don't understand how that is. And I'm on a comedy show. I am always a kind and thoughtful person."
He continued, "I am sorry to tell you that there really is no big story. Unless you want to do a story about political correctness." The Goldbergs wrote Garlin's character off the show between seasons before ending its run with season 10. His costar, Wendi McLendon-Covey, said the decision to part ways with Garlin "was a long time coming."
08 of 08
Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent
Jeffrey Tambor on 'Transparent'
Credit: Beth Dubber/Amazon Studios
Jeffrey Tambor won two Emmys for his portrayal of Maura Pfefferman, a trans woman who comes out later in life in the hit Amazon series Transparent. In 2017, following the show's fourth season, Amazon launched an investigation into Tambor over sexual harassment allegations made by former assistant Van Barnes and guest star Trace Lysette. Tambor released a statement denying the allegations, saying, "I know I haven’t always been the easiest person to work with. I can be volatile and ill-tempered, and too often I express my opinions harshly and without tact. But I have never been a predator — ever."
In a subsequent statement addressing the allegations, it seemed as though Tambor was announcing his exit from the series. "Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I don’t see how I can return to Transparent," he said. The actor then denied that he quit the series, and was officially fired in February 2018.
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Creator and showrunner Joey Soloway issued a statement to EW following Tambor's firing. "I have great respect and admiration for Van Barnes and Trace Lysette, whose courage in speaking out about their experience on Transparent is an example of the leadership this moment in our culture requires," Soloway said. "We are grateful to the many trans people who have supported our vision for Transparent since its inception and remain heartbroken about the pain and mistrust their experience has generated in our community."
Transparent returned in 2019 with a musical series finale, sans Tambor.
on Entertainment Weekly
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