A Guide To All The Behind-The-Scenes Drama On Your Favorite TV Shows

Lost was a true TV juggernaut, a ratings hit and a critical darling. But despite all the accolades it won, it was allegedly a difficult place to work for many members of the cast and crew. Speaking to author Maureen Ryan for her book Burn It Down, writer Monica Owusu-Breen characterized the atmosphere: “I can only describe it as hazing. It was very much middle school and relentlessly cruel. And I’ve never heard that much racist commentary in one room in my career.”

The actors reportedly weren't exempt from the toxicity either. Harold Perrineau, who played Michael, pushed back when told by members of the production team that the white characters were more “relatable," and questioned scripts that had Michael seem to neglect his son. Perrineau was let go from the show at the end of the second season, an event that he described as a shock:

I was f*cked up about it. I was like, ‘Oh, I just got fired, I think.' I was like, ‘Wait a minute, what’s happening?’ [Showrunner Carlton Cuse] said, ‘Well, you know, you said to us, if we don’t have anything good for you, you want to go.’ I was just asking for equal depth… [He said,] ‘Well, you said you don’t have enough work here, so we’re letting you go.’

Multiple sources claimed that, when discussing Perrineau's departure, showrunner Damon Lindelof said he “called me racist, so I fired his a**.”

Lindelof responded to Ryan's reporting:

My level of fundamental inexperience as a manager and a boss, my role as someone who was supposed to model a climate of creative danger and risk-taking but provide safety and comfort inside of the creative process – I failed in that endeavor.

The death of “Caskett” turned out to be a fitting name for a show that reportedly died due to infighting. Things between Stana Katic (Kate Beckett) and Nathan Fillion (Rick Castle) may have started out friendly, but over Katic’s eight season run, things definitely went south between the two. Katic was not asked back for Season 9 along with Tamala Jones, who had also been with the show since Season 1. ABC said the actors would not return due to budget cuts. 

Sources surrounding the show say it was because Fillion couldn’t stand Katic, despite their chemistry onscreen. Rumors floated that Fillion would make Katic cry on set and that he may have been jealous of the notoriety she received after years on the series. The stories could be total bunk and would be quite shocking if they were true, considering that the show portrays the opposite sentiment in its storylines.

Katic’s exit may have simply been a case of two actors growing weary of each other, as the actors publicly denied any bad blood. Whatever the case, Castle fans were shocked that Katic wasn’t returning and went on a rampage against the network. ABC canceled the show after Season 8. 

Cote de Pablo (Ziva) left the show at the end of Season 10 and it didn’t seem like she was leaving of her own accord. Initially, de Pablo’s explanations were vague at best. "As far as my decision to leave, that's a personal thing, and I'd rather leave it at that," de Pablo told TV Guide in 2013. When asked about her next project, de Pablo responded, “Leaving NCIS was not planned, so there is no plan.” A few years later, Pablo revealed in an interview with Babson College that she had wanted better storylines and more respect for her character. 

Pablo’s onscreen love interest Michael Weatherly (Tony DiNozzo) exited the show at the end of Season 13 because he felt that without Ziva, DiNozzo didn’t have much going on, besides raising their surprise baby.

Thomas Gibson was directing an episode of Criminal Minds when he got into an altercation with writer and co-executive producer Virgil Williams. Things got heated and Gibson allegedly kicked Williams.

Initially, CBS suspended Gibson for two episodes and Gibson apologized, saying, “There were creative differences on the set and a disagreement. I regret that it occurred. We all want to work together as a team to make the best show possible. We always have and we always will.”

But that just wasn’t good enough. HR analyzed his behavior and found it lacking; years earlier, Gibson had another run-in with a crew member. He had apparently gotten into an altercation with AD Ian Woolf and was required to take anger management counseling. After Gibson got into it with Williams, CBS had enough and fired him.

Despite being a ratings MVP, there’s been more drama and scandal on this show than Scandal. 

Here’s the quick list: 

• Following her Emmy win in 2007, Katherine Heigl reportedly became difficult to work with. She left the show three years later. 
• Isaiah Washington got fired in 2007 when he used a homophobic slur in a confrontation with gay co-star T.R. Knight.
• Knight also had issues with creator Shonda Rhimes over his character and eventually left due to those differences.
• An explicit tape of Eric Dane was leaked and he sued Gawker over it. Dane also entered rehab for painkiller addiction between filming seasons.
• Patrick Dempsey was written out of the show, possibly due to his behavior on set.

Creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy admitted that the line between personal and business lives became blurred on the set of Glee, not helping the drama that spilled through the halls of McKinley High. He described the situation to Entertainment Weekly:

It was the best time in my life and the worst time in my life. There was a lot of infighting. There was a lot of people sleeping together and breaking up. It was good training for being a parent, I'll tell you that much… But I also made a mistake. We all got too personal. We loved it so much that we would all go out to dinner and we'd hang out and we were always together, so there was no delineation between who was the boss and who was the employee. And we were all so close that finally when something would happen, it would be so personal to me that I would literally hit the roof.