ABC’s ‘Scandal’: Columbus Short on leaving prior to season 4

While “Scandal” has plenty of tense moments, there are only a few that really lead to a longtime fixture of the show saying goodbye. We saw that early on in season 3 courtesy of the James character, and then we had it all over again with Columbus Short’s role of Harrison during the finale. The show has already confirmed that he will not be back for the upcoming fourth season.

While Short has been involved in a series of off-camera incidents, including an arrest over the Fourth of July holiday for public intoxication, he has not spoken too much about his departure from the show … at least until now. Speaking out in a new interview with “Access Hollywood” airing both tonight and tomorrow, Short explained that he has no hard feelings with ABC or executive producer Shonda Rhimes for cutting ties with him:

“Let’s talk about ABC and let’s talk about the show ‘Scandal.’ They did not throw me to the curb like trash – that’s my family. They knew that I was going through a tough season and rallied around me and wrapped their arms around me, from Shonda to the craft service man. We’re a family and I think at a certain point when you’re getting a barrage of stories after stories, ABC justifiably would want to distance themselves…. They did the right thing but I think it takes time to rebuild.”

“I lost a lot of things due to these ugly stories, whether they are true or not, the allegations just put an ugly, nasty taste in people’s mouth and that’s the unfair part that I’ve had to weather.”

In the end, we don’t want to sit here and make too many strong opinions on Short one way or another. All we know is that he’s been at the center of some messed-up headlines in the past year, and we really hope that he gets his life back on track before trying to have another high-profile job in this industry again. He’s really going to have to prove himself in order to stabilize his career again, but it has been done with others in the past.

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Photo: ABC