14 DAY TRIAL // Come season 8 of Fox’s hit medical drama “House M.D.,” fans will no longer be seeing one cast member that’s been around for the ride ever since the beginning: Lisa Edelstein has just announced that she would not be reprising her role as Dr. Cuddy.
“House M.D.” is slowly heading towards its end, with various reports suggesting that the upcoming season will also be its last – which only makes Lisa’s departure in the thirteenth hour all that much more shocking, as Michael Ausiello of TV Line also points out.
With Hugh Laurie, Olivia Wilde and Peter Jacobson contractually bound for season 8, that meant the other members of the cast had to renegotiate their contracts.
Omar Epps and Robert Sean Leonard signed theirs a short while ago, right before Fox announced it was renewing the show for season 8: Edelstein and Jesse Spencer were the only two left pending.
Lisa, as noted above, is choosing to bail out on “House.” What’s even more intriguing is that she doesn’t even provide an explanation for the departure, though she does say she’s disappointed at having to leave.
“After much consideration, I am moving onward with a combination of disappointment at leaving behind a character I have loved playing for seven years and excitement of the new opportunities in acting and producing that lie ahead,” the actress says.
Ausiello believes Lisa was the first (and most likely last) victim of pay cuts on the show, pay cuts that the producers managed to avoid so far.
The fact that executive producer Katie Jacobs was saying no later than a week ago that Lisa would most likely be back because there was no replacing her – and a much worse show without her – also adds weight to this argument.
“Lisa is such a valuable member [of the cast. I challenge any other actress on TV to do what she does seemingly effortlessly. It’s certainly not my plan or David’s plan or the creative team’s plan to not have Lisa in the show,” Jacobs said.
With Edelstein out of the picture, that still leaves Jesse Spencer to decide whether he wants to or can return to season 8 of “House M.D.”