Melrose: Actor axe wasn’t planned.

Colin Egglesfield, who is one of the two actors being dropped from Melrose Place was slated to be in 10 of the 13 first episodes. But he says he had a multiyear contract on the CW drama.

Despite assurances by producers they had always planned his exit, now Egglesfield says it was a network decision and blames the move on ratings.

“I got the call this morning from our producers, Todd [Slavkin] and Darren [Swimmer],” he told EOnline. “They were really saddened, and you could tell it was difficult for them to break this news to me. They said it was a network decision, and they said the network thought Auggie was a little too dark, with his alcoholism. They felt like in the landscape of Melrose they wanted to change the tone of the show. So that’s the explanation that they gave me.”

He says the news this week was the first he’d heard of it.

“They said that it wasn’t anything against me or my talent or anything. There was never any discussion that they weren’t sure what they were going to do with me or my character. And it wasn’t like I was getting in fights with crew members or punching people out.”

Egglesfield is shooting one more episode from Monday.

Source: EOnline