Why Castle was canceled after Stana Katic's ouster

For those Castle fans who are still mourning the loss of the long-running procedural, new ABC President Channing Dungey set the record straight on why the series would get canceled after the public ousting of leading lady Stana Katic.

Less than a month before Castle was axed after eight seasons, it was announced that both Katic, who played Detective Kate Beckett, and Tamala Jones, who played medical examiner Lanie Parish, would not return for a potential ninth season, giving fans hope that the show would actually get renewed.

However, as Dungey explained Thursday at the Television Critics Association’s press tour, the studio had let the two actresses go in preparation for a potential renewal, but ABC decided against moving forward with season 9.

“That’s a case where you have things running on sort of two parallel tracks,” Dungey said. “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.”

So there you have it. For more news from ABC’s day at TCA, click here.