6 Biggest Acting Departures Heading Into the Fall TV Season

The fall TV season is just around the corner and fans are preparing for their favorite shows to return to the line-up.

While there are a ton of shows coming back, some of them will look a little bit different. Hit series like Chicago Fire, Criminal Minds, and many more will all be without some familiar faces when they premiere their new seasons.

This summer was a brutal one for casting shake-ups, causing many actors to depart their current projects. Some of these performers chose to quit their shows while some were asked to leave for creative reasons.

No matter how they left, it’s going to be sad to see these five shows without some of their brightest stars:

Criminal Minds

At the end of Season 12 it was pretty obvious that the Criminal Minds roster would lose a member or two by the time the fall rolled around. 

Most of the team members were involved in a devastating car accident that left their fates hanging in the balance. However, it looks like the creative team has already revealed who’s on the way out.

Earlier this summer it was revealed that Damon Gupton was let go from Criminal Minds, and he didn’t seem to love the decision. With that in mind, it’s pretty clear that his character will be the one to die in the crash.

CBS didn’t take long to find a replacement for Gupton’s character, as Daniel Henney is joining the show as a series regular, following the cancellation of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.

Chicago P.D.

Chicago P.D. was one of the only shows this year to have an actor leave on their own accord, and it’s a major loss for the series.

Sophia Bush, who was one of the series’ biggest stars, decided that she wanted to move on. Just after the summer began, the actress made her decision public.

Bush’s character will be written off early in Season 5, though it hasn’t exactly been revealed how she’ll leave.

This is a big loss for Chicago P.D. but the series rebounded fairly quickly. Following the cancellation of Chicago Justice, it was announced that Jon Seda would be returning to Chicago P.D. as a series regular for the upcoming season. Tracy Spiridakos was also promoted to series regular status, while actors Wendell Pierce and Mykelti Williamson were also brought on.

Chicago Fire

Chicago Fire has a situation that’s a little different from the other shows on this list, mainly because we don’t actually know who is leaving yet.

Season 5 ended with a massive cliffhanger that left the fates of several major characters up in the air. Many assumed that at least one of those characters would die.

This week, showrunner Derek Haas revealed that at least one character wouldn’t be returning for Season 6.

“Not all characters are coming back for Season 6,” Haas said. “But I won’t specifically say how come they’re not coming back.”

Hawaii Five-0

While the departure on Criminal Minds seemed to be a clean break, CBS didn’t have the same luck on a couple of other programs.

Hawaii Five-0 has been a mainstay on Friday nights for a number of years but it’s about to be without two of its biggest stars.

Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park fought to earn equal pay with their white co-stars, but CBS wouldn’t give them the raise. While the network claims to have offered the actors “significant raises” it still wasn’t on an equal playing field.

Since CBS wouldn’t make equality work, Kim and Park walked.

Kevin Can Wait

The other controversy for CBS fall on sophomore comedy Kevin Can Wait.

During its first season, the Kevin James comedy pulled in strong ratings, but they were steadily declining week after week. So CBS decided to make a switch.

The sitcom brought in Leah Remini, James’ former TV wife on King of Queens, for a guest role in the season finale. The chemistry between the two actors was obviously still there and CBS took full advantage.

Erinn Hayes, James’ current on-screen wife, was fired from the show merely days after Remini was promoted to series regular.

When asked how that shake-up would work when Season 2 rolled around, CBS revealed that the show was killing Hayes’ character off.

Once Upon a Time

ABC easily gets the award for biggest casting shake-up of the season with Once Upon a Time basically undergoing a series reboot.

The Season 6 finale wrapped up many current story arcs on the show and Season 7 will focus on a slightly different set of characters.

Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, and Jared Gilmore – four of the six series stars – are out. 

The new season is essentially telling the same story as Season 1, but putting the focus on the grown-up version of Henry and his long-lost daughter.

Photo Credit: ABC