ABC boss explains ‘Castle’ cancellation after Stana Katic – Tamala Jones exit

We are now more than two months removed from “Castle” being canceled at ABC, and there are still many questions that viewers have. For one, why go through the trouble of announcing the exits of Stana Katic and Tamala Jones if you were just going to end the show, anyway?

The subject of the show’s conclusion did come up today the network’s TCA Summer Press Tour event, and (per Entertainment Weekly) programming head Channing Dungey made it clear that the confusion was due to the studio and the network each doing what they had to do, even if their interests did not align:

“That’s a case where you have things running on sort of two parallel tracks … We were always very up-front with the studio and the producers about the possibility that we might not be bringing the show back for season 9, but the studio has to do what they need to do in order to prepare for the possibility of season 9. So they did what they felt they needed to do in order to be ready if they did get the nod. Ultimately for us at the network, we did not feel that it was the right thing to do to order another season.”

In the end, we don’t disagree with the decision since having a season without Katic would’ve been miserable. Our feeling of dismay mostly comes from all of the executive shuffling at ABC with Paul Lee being replaced by Dungey. Had there been one programming head there for the full year, we would hope that they would have told the producers beforehand that season 8 was the last and they could have constructed a better ending. Rather than something horrifically tacked-on.