Is The Night Shift Losing Too Many Main Cast Characters?
One of the few broadcast network medical dramas in NBC's The Night Shift was recently renewed for its fourth season, but with that renewal came the news that another of its original cast will not be returning. Of nine original core cast members only five remain, and usually that much character loss isn't tolerated by fans. So let's just have a quick look and see if The Night Shift is going to struggle when its fourth season begins (presumably next summer).
What is The Night Shift?
Better to do a quick overview first, though. The Night Shift is a medical drama that airs on NBC, about a group of doctors who work the night shift at San Antonio Memorial Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. It has so far aired 3 seasons, spanning 35 episodes.
When it first began airing, it had nine regulars on the books, as follows:
- Eoin Macken as Dr. TC Callahan
- Jill Flint as Dr. Jordan Alexander
- Brendan Fehr as Dr. Drew Allister
- Robert Bailey Jr as Dr. Paul Cummings
- JR Lemon as Kenny Fournette
- Daniella Alonso as Dr. Landry de la Cruz (season 1)
- Jeananne Goossen as Dr. Krista Bell-Hart (seasons 1-2)
- Freddy Rodriguez as Michael Ragosa (seasons 1-2)
- Ken Leung as Dr. Topher Zia (seasons 1-3)
Over time, the bottom four characters have all left the show, for various reasons. Only two characters have been added to the original roster:
- Scott Wolf as Dr. Scott Clemens (recurring seasons 1-2, main season 3)
- Tanaya Beatty as Dr. Shannon Rivera (season 3)
But the loss of original cast members are keenly felt by audiences, so why did these characters leave and what effect did that have?
1. Dr. Landry de la Cruz
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| Dr. Landy de la Cruz with a young patient |
Daniella Alonso played night shift psychiatrist Dr. Landry de la Cruz in the 8-episode first season. She was utilised mostly as the show's emotional constant: be it for patients or staff (most notably Dr. Ragosa, who was suffering a cancer scare), and represented order and logic amid a chaotic atmosphere.
NBC decided that they wanted the show to expand in its second season to focus more on the ER and paramedics, leaving the character of Dr. de la Cruz surplus to requirements. Daniella Alonso's character was therefore chopped from the show.
The impact of this was negligible: de la Cruz wasn't the most central character of the original nine, and the second season saw a huge increase in quality as the show expanded. She simply wasn't missed.
2. Michael Ragosa & Dr. Krista Bell-Hart
However, the news of a third season renewal was coupled with two shock departures: Freddy Rodriguez and Jeananne Goossen both had decided not to reprise their roles. Importantly, the decision this time was made by the individual actors: Rodriguez won the role of lawyer Benny Colón in new CBS series Bull, while Jeananne Goossen announced her departure with a mysterious Twitter post:
The decision for Rodriguez must have been fairly easy: getting a spot on Bull would work wonders for Rodriguez's name and career - more so than, with no disrespect, The Night Shift ever could.
On the other hand, it's hard to read into that tweet from Goossen. I can't figure out if she's simply suggesting that NBC decided not to stand in her way or if there's some deeper inference that things weren't so good behind the scenes.
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| Jeananne Goossen as Dr. Krista Bell-Hart |
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| The imperious Michael Ragosa |
The impact of Ragosa and Bell-Hart's departures were somewhat eased by NBC upgrading recurring character Dr. Scott Clemens to main cast status for season 3, while bringing in a new, hot-headed young female doctor to replace Bell-Hart. But there's simply no denying that season 3 showed a general dip in quality: Ragosa's growing arc of trying to become a doctor and Bell-Hart's sibling-like relationship with Dr. Allister simply couldn't be replaced by either Clemens or Dr. Shannon Rivera.
In the end, while de la Cruz didn't need to be replaced, Ragosa and Bell-Hart turned out to be irreplaceable.
3. Dr. Topher Zia
This is a weird one. Following the conclusion of the hospital takeover arc in the back end of season 3, Dr. Cummings' father kept all the ER staff on the payroll - except for Topher, who was promptly fired. Had Ken Leung not decided to leave the show, the writers would surely have begun season 4 with some sort of battle of wits between Topher and Cummings Snr that would have concluded with Topher getting his job back as ER Chief. Instead, Topher was accidentally written out very, very well.
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| Ken Leung as Dr. Topher Zia |
Why was he written out, though?
Well, I doubt that was the plan. However, NBC made a hash of waiting and waiting and waiting to announce The Night Shift's renewal for season 4, and by the time they did Ken Leung had decided to focus on other projects. There is time for Topher to be replaced (and no doubt the writers could simply draft in someone new and have them be one of Cummings Snr's colleagues), but can that person replace Topher? He was the glue that held the ER together, and as TC's best buddy and former army vet, The Night Shift has lost yet another dynamic so crucial to its formula.
Season-on-season Ratings
Ratings are one of the biggest factors in shows getting renewed, and the following were the average season ratings for The Night Shift's first three seasons:
SEASON 1: 1.4 6.59m
SEASON 2: 1.3 5.29m
SEASON 3: 1.0 4.99m
Having seen what characters left, when and how important they were, I take quite a lot from those figures. Firstly, that Dr. de la Cruz was in fact not key to the show and that her departure didn't heavily affect the season averages, especially in the all-important demo share. Secondly, that Ragosa and Bell-Hart both were key to the show and their departures did heavily affect the season averages.
However, it's worth noting that ratings are slightly skewed because of when the seasons aired. Seasons 1 and 3 both aired in the summer (which typically draws lower ratings), while season 2 aired midseason where ratings are expected to be higher. Moreover, it's also important to note that that lowly 1.0 for season 3 actually isn't as bad as it looks: The Night Shift's third season was still the highest rated scripted broadcast network show this summer.
Final thoughts
44% of the original cast has been lost for a multitude of reasons, but worse than that they haven't been properly replaced. It seems clear that, no matter how well The Night Shift's season 3 performance was in comparison to its competition, its severe dip can be attributed to the loss of two major characters, who followed on from the trend that opened the season prior. Now with Ken Leung opting not to return for season 4, NBC could once again face a very unique problem: that The Night Shift may transpire to be one of the highest-rated shows of next summer, and yet still experience a huge dip in ratings after losing their fourth major character in just 3 seasons. And no matter what way you look at it, that's still worrying.
Thanks for reading everyone, I'll see you all next time!
Sam
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