Steve Carell Leaving "The Office" Early
PASADENA, Calif. (CBS/AP) Steve Carell will be leaving "The Office" earlier than expected.
Co-creator and executive producer Greg Daniels says Carell will be gone before the season-ending episodes in May. The final episodes of the season will focus on the scrambling to replace him at the Scranton branch of the mythical Dunder Mifflin paper company.
Executive producer Paul Lieberstein (who also plays Toby on the show) told New York magazine's Vulture blog Friday that producers chose this route because it was important for them to make sure the second half of the season wasn't all about Carell's character, Michael Scott, leaving the show.
"It was about focusing the spring on the office and everybody else, and not just a character going," he said. "If the show was ending, it would be about that. But it's not."
Carell had said previously that he was quitting the show to concentrate on his movie career. But NBC plans to press on without him.
The network said Friday that Carell will leave with four episodes left in the season. That means his farewell episode will most likely come in April.