Christina Applegate is exiting NBC's Up All Night in
the latest setback to the struggling sophomore comedy.
"It's been a great experience working on Up All Night,
but the show has taken a different creative direction and I decided it was best
for me to move on to other endeavors," Applegate said in a statement. "Working
with Lorne Michaels has been a dream come true and I am grateful he brought me
into his TV family. I will miss the cast, producers and crew, and wish
them the best always."
An NBC spokesman had no comment on the future of the show
without Applegate.
Her departure comes as Up All Night is on hiatus to
retool its format from single-camera to multicamera, including building new
sets to accommodate a live studio audience. Production on five new episodes was
scheduled to resume in February, with the comedy to return to NBC's schedule in
late spring.
Series creator Emily Spivey also left the series in January,
after Linda Wallem (Nurse Jackie) replaced Tucker Crawley as showrunner.
At the TCA press tour in January, NBC Entertainment president
Jennifer Salke said she hoped the format change would play to the strengths of
series stars Applegate, Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph.
"We started looking at the show and thinking what was the
best format for it, given that they felt a little tied down by the format they
were in and the creative direction of the show," she said. "And they were kind
of itching to be able to be really perform in a way that we all felt, in front
of a live audience, would be the best solution to that."
Up All Night had been averaging a 1.3 rating with
adults 18-49 on Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. after averaging a 1.7 leading out of The
Office in its first season.
Deadline first reported the story.
