Here’s something that we’re surprised we haven’t seen more of: Liv Tyler has decided to leave her Fox show 9-1-1: Lone Star, and it’s apparently because she’s concerned about having to travel from her home in London to where the show films in Los Angeles while the United States continues to grossly mishandle its response to the coronavirus pandemic. This comes shortly after this country suffered its 200,000th COVID-19 death, so it’s not like we needed another indication of how badly the Trump administration has fucked this up, but we can at least add “Liv Tyler would rather quit a network TV job than fly to the U.S.” to the list.
This news comes from Deadline, which says that Tyler was on a regular recurring contract for the show so it’s not like she was going to leave anyway, but her character’s storyline apparently wrapped up in a fairly conclusive way that should make it easy to explain why she’s not there anymore. Her character won’t be killed or recast though, allowing Tyler to come back someday if things in this country somehow improve, but Deadline says the “void” left by her departure will be filled by a new character played by Gina Torres. Also, in an odd twist, this is the second time in the 9-1-1 franchise that a big-name female lead has departed after only one season, with Connie Britton leaving the original show after only one year. That one was planned ahead of time and had nothing to do with a deadly global pandemic, but still. It’s kind of weird.
9-1-1: Lone Star, which will continue to star Rob Lowe (as a former New York firefighter who moves to Texas), was one of last year’s highest-rated new shows.