‘Sleepy Hollow’ season 4: Fox boss explains Nicole Beharie’s exit, pressing on

One of the biggest headlines on Fox over the past couple of months has been the departure of Nicole Beharie on “Sleepy Hollow.” She was a huge part of the first three seasons of the show, and it’s really hard as a result to image the show on the network without her.

However, this is a little bit of a different situation than many other departures from shows we’ve seen as of late. The network or producers weren’t pushing her to leave; Beharie did so under her own accord, and given that the show still makes money for Fox despite lower ratings and a Friday timeslot, it makes sense that they would want to figure out a way for it to continue.

Speaking to reporters today (per TVLine) in a conference call touting the upcoming Fox fall schedule, programming head Dana Walden made it fairly clear that killing off Abbie Mills was a necessary move for the show to make, and not necessarily one that anyone involved really wanted to do:

“There were a variety of factors that led to the end of the season … It was not a decision that we wanted to make initially. We ended up being put in a situation where that was a decision that needed to be made.”

Now, we are relying more on Tom Mison to carry the story of Ichabod Crane, however difficult that may be. There’s also no guarantee just yet that season 4 will be the last for the show; we figure that is a decision that will be made further once the early ratings start to come in. We just hope that the show gets an indication early, and doesn’t end up like another show in “Nashville” that was sent recently to TV purgatory. (Hey, it could technically come back from the dead in due time.)