‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Star Chelsea Peretti Reveals It Wasn’t ‘Fully’ Her Decision to Leave NBC Sitcom

Gina Linetti left the Nine-Nine on her terms in this week’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode, but actress Chelsea Peretti hinted that leaving the show was not completely her decision alone.

In a post-show interview with TVLine, the comedian said it “wasn’t fully just my decision. It’s hard to get into the weeds of what exactly transpired and how it all shook out, but it kind of came together to be this timing that presented itself,” adding, “So I kind of knew that it was going to be happening for a while… [and was] holding on to this feeling of, like, ‘I’m going away from this family’ in my head.”

Peretti has played Gina since the show began in 2013 on FOX. In October, she announced plans to leave partway through Season 6, the show’s first season on NBC. She said there is no bad blood after leaving, and there are even plans for her to come back as “the Paris of people” later this season.

“If you talk to anyone in acting — we didn’t even know if the show was going to be renewed or not — you’re always thinking [about] what’s going to happen in your life. It’s the endless twists and turns of show business, and this is kind of how it wound up evolving,” Peretti told TVLine. “But I’m going to do another episode, and there’s nothing but family feel, so…”

The Nine-Nine writers planted Gina’s reasons for leaving in last week’s “The Taddler,” when Jake (Andy Samberg) suggested to her that being an assistant at the precinct was a waste of her time. Gina decided she should start her own business.

In this week’s “Four Movements,” Gina said goodbye to everyone and left behind a really terrible gold statue of herself in the precinct. Mario Lopez also made a cameo as the celebrity Jake gets to attend her going away party.

Peretti told The Hollywood Reporter that she did have “a lot of input” on Gina’s final episode.

“Me and [co-creator/showrunner Dan Goor] spent a lot of time on the phone cackling about a variety of different ideas,” Peretti said. “Not all of them made it in. But we did have a lot of fun.”

As for what she will miss the most about playing the character, Peretti said the table reads and the inside jokes.

“There are so many funny inside jokes we’ve built up over the years,” she told THR. “The good news is we have a text chain where we’re always texting back and forth. They didn’t cut me out of that yet, but we’ll see. [I’ll miss] seeing what Gina would do next, and what her potential is. And hanging out with the cast.”

Notably, “Four Movements” did not end with Gina explaining exactly what she plans to do next.

“We’ll shine a light on that,” Peretti told TVLine. “We most definitely will.”

Brooklyn Nine-Nine airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo credit: NBC