The great showrunner exodus of Summer 2014 continues, with countless shows—OK, like three—suddenly finding themselves directionless and without the benefit of whatever important stuff a showrunner does. First there was The Following and Ray Donovan, both of which lost their showrunners at the end of August.The Following’s Jennifer Johnson jumped ship after only a few months on the job, and Showtime chose not to renew Ray Donovan creator Ann Biderman’s contract for “financial reasons.” Now, as reported by Deadline, Nurse Jackie co-creator Liz Brixius has decided to leave her position as the showrunner on NBC’s new comedy Bad Judge.
This move comes only a few weeks before the show is set to premiere, with Deadline citing “creative differences” as the reason behind it. Presumably Brixius thought Kate Walsh’s bad judge was too bad/not bad enough, and the network thought she was too judge/not judge enough. It’s not all bad news for Bad Judge, though, as Deadline also says NBC is currently in talks with former Whitney showrunner Betsy Thomas to replace Brixius. People liked that show, right? We remember people liking it, at least. Wasn’t it was the one about the wacky group of friends who all go to a community college? Chevy Chase was on it? Yeah, this is going to turn out well.