'The Good Doctor' Star Suddenly Exits Show

The Good Doctor's latest exit is coming as a surprise. Just a few months after Osvaldo Benavides was promoted to series regular, the actor, who stars as Dr. Mateo Rendon Osma, is leaving the show, TVLine reported Monday. Mateo was introduced in Season 4 and later became romantically involved with Christina Chang's Dr. Audrey Lim.

Sony Pictures Television, which produces the series, has not commented. Details of the character's exit are unknown. Benavides has not mentioned the report on his Instagram or Twitter pages. Benavides, who was born in Mexico City, made his U.S. television debut with The Good Doctor following over three decades in Mexican television.

Benavides' Mateo first appeared in the Season 4 finale, when Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) and the rest of the St. Bonaventure Hospital team traveled to Guatemala on a mission to help patients at a rural hospital. Mateo was a local surgeon who became friends with Dr. Lim. After original series cast member Antonia Thomas, who played Dr. Claire Browne, left following the Season 4 finale, Mateo was promoted to series regular.

During the Season 5 premiere, Mateo traveled to San Jose in the hopes of starting a romantic relationship with Lim. She hired him as a surgical attending, but it was later discovered that Mateo had legal trouble, so he was only hired on a probationary basis. Dr. Marcus Andrew (Hill Harper) was asked to keep an eye on Mateo. "In terms of his training, he is a fairly senior doctor," executive producer David Shore told TVLine before the Season 5 premiere. "But because of his past, because of his history, he is going to have to learn to swallow his pride a little bit."

The Good Doctor has experienced a surprising amount of cast turnover for a show that only just started its fifth season. At the end of Season 1, Chuku Modu and Beau Garrett both left, while Tamlyn Tomita said goodbye to the hospital after Season 2. Jasika Nicole went from recurring to series regular in Season 3 to leaving before Season 4 started. Nicholas Gonzales also left before Season 4 started. Noah Galvin and Bria Samoné Henderson joined the cast in Season 4 and were also promoted to series regulars for Season 5.

The Good Doctor is based on a South Korean series of the same name. The only stars remaining from the pilot episode are Highmore, Harper, and Richard Schiff. The show also stars Will Yun Lee, Fionna Gubelman, and Paige Spara. The next new episode, "Rationality," airs on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC, following Dancing With The Stars.