CBSSay it ain't so!
Shemar Moore is saying goodbye to Criminal Minds after 11 seasons on the CBS procedural, E! News confirms.
Moore has played FBI special agent Derek Morgan since the show first started, but at the end of tonight's episode, Derek decided to leave the BAU to focus more on his wife and baby.
Just within the past few episodes, Derek was abducted and tortured and was nearly killed just before finding out his girlfriend Savannah (Rochelle Aytes) was pregnant. After his abduction, Derek and Savannah got married, and then she gave birth to his son, Hank, in the midst of Derek's attempts to find out who was responsible for his attack.
Basically, we don't blame Derek for his decision.
While Moore's decision wasn't fueled by kidnapping and torture, he is partly leaving in order to focus on having a family. He told TVLine that he wants to "walk my dogs, travel, get married, have kids. I want balance, and it's hard to do with the schedule that we have."
"It's a weird experience," Moore told THR of his exit. "I just spent 11 years with a group of people and it's a weird thing to walk away from—but I did it on my terms and in the right way."
Moore is not the first original cast member to leave the show. In 2008, Mandy Patinkin left his role of Jason Gideon after just two seasons due to creative differences.
Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS.