Ashlee Simpson can kiss her day job goodbye. She’s been fired from
Melrose Place! After just two months on the air, the CW remake is not doing well in the ratings, which has been making show executives scramble to figure out how to save the project.
Murders usually work for ratings boosters, and unfortunately, producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer decided to wrap Ash’s character up into the mystery of who killed Sydney. She and actor Colin Egglesfield will not appear after the 12th episode.
Slavkin tells
EW, “Well, we always knew that this murder mystery would end in episode 12. And we always knew that [Ashlee's] character of Violet would be instrumental in that as a suspect, and [Colin's character of] Augie as well. And once that murder mystery was solved, she would go on her way. That was the original plan going into the development of the show.”
We wonder if Ashlee was clued in on this little development…Slavkin also says “the tone of the show was going to shift into a much more fun, romantic, sexy upbeat kind of show.” Guess they don’t exactly see that in Ashlee.
As for how the two took the news? Slavkin said, “They’re total professionals and they took it like professionals. When you go into a show you never know what’s going to evolve and what the possibilities are. But because they knew ahead of time [that leaving was a possibility], it wasn’t a complete shock.”
Hopefully this will save the show! Something needs to change, that’s for sure!
