Law & Order: SVU‘s Jamie Gray Hyder Says Exit Was Not Her Choice
One of Law & Order: SVU‘s outgoing squad members has provided some clarity on her upcoming exit: The choice to leave was not her own.
Jamie Gray Hyder — who is departing the NBC drama alongside co-star Demore Barnes — took to Twitter on Saturday to inform fans that, “The decision was made above my pay grade and wouldn’t have been my choice. But hey, that’s showbiz for ya.” Along with her message, Hyder wrote the following caption: “Kat’s outta the bag… #SVU23 Just got a lot less colorful.”
Hyder and Barnes’ exits were announced Friday; both of their characters — detective Kat Tamin and deputy chief Christian Garland, respectively — will be be written out in the upcoming Season 23 premiere.
Hyder expressed gratitude to the “SVUniverse,” while adding, “To anyone who felt represented by any part of Kat’s being or mission, please know that you will always have representation in me.”
The duo joined SVU in Season 21 on a recurring basis before being upped to series regulars for Season 22.
SVU — now the longest-running live-action primetime series of all time — is set to return for Season 23 with a two-hour premiere airing Thursday, Sept. 23 at 8/7c on NBC, followed by Law & Order: Organized Crime‘s Season 2 premiere at 10 pm. (Click here to check out all of NBC’s fall premiere dates.)
Are you sad to see Hyder and Barnes go? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments.
This decision reeks, especially after Jamie’s statement. SVU finally had some decent and sorely needed representation (of a young character and LGBTQ character). Why dial it back? Would love some sort of official explanation for this, even if it’s probably not going to be the truth.
My guess, they are working to pay Meloni for more appearances, and they are going to go for Stabler/Benson big time. I hate Stabler/Benson so this may just be my paranoia peeking out.
They were bringing back Stabler long before they decided to spend an entire season expanding Kat’s character and making her a full fledged detective. I don’t buy that Stabler’s the reason for this.
Would it surprise anyone if they dropped the Organized Crime series and Stabler is reinstated as a member of the SVU?
I don’t believe Christopher Meloni wants to on SVU. He likes being the Main Star in OC.
You do realize that they will have to replace both actors right? Actors who will likely make the same if not more than Jamie and Denmore. They cannot run the department with one captain, one sergeant and one detective alone. This decision could not possibly have anything to do with money. And do you hate Mariska as much as Chris? She is the one making bank. It is not Mariska’s or Chris’s fault.
With as much pull as Mariska has gotten in the writers room the last couple of years, I’m wagering this was a lil bit her idea.
If you’d paid any attention to her Twitter for a while now, there’s multiple photos of her with the writers over multiple days during the writing “season”.
Actors don’t just drop by that often with them unless they are steering the scripts – and she’s been on the show long enough to get that kind of pull with them.
A LOT of her personal views have now been written into Benson’s character that were never there before.
Mariska is an executive producer. So yes, she has pull. As executive producers can hire/fire & steer storylines
I agree Keith. She always has to grandstand. And let’s not forget. How much she reminds whomever how long she has been there. She overrides Rollins also.
Yuck!! I liked the ones they dropped and Stabler is a has been!!
I agree!
I wish they would replace Mariska as Captain, I don’t like her as Captain.
No, Meloni’s deal for Organized Crime absolutely also includes his appearances on SVU. NBC does the same with its Chicago shows. There were a bunch of articles about it on TVLine years back, about these new “franchise” type talent contracts when NBC started pioneering them.
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This doesn’t make any sense as a cost-saving measure. Demore Barnes and Hyder are brand new to the show and neither are big name actors. Their salaries aren’t going to be any higher than the actors they will end up replacing them with. And they will need to replace at least Hyder–Barnes’s character’s position doesn’t really require a series regular for story reasons, but the show definitely needs another rank & file detective now. It’s got to be a creative decision, or else they didn’t like working with her.
Melon is a has been! He should have stayed gone!
I agree. Not interested in Chris Meloni anymore and I USED to be a fan. Letting go of 2 great characters to pay an old white guy is par for show biz. Really disappointed in Marishka’s influence. Also both she and a Kelli need to stop with the lip injections.
I also hate Benson/Stabler, but I doubt it’s related. His contract would cover both shows already. Doesn’t mean it’s not a pay thing, though, were any other contracts up?
You got to be a little bit more specific do you hate the characters or the actors
They were specific. The characters names were used, not the actors.
I beg to differ I absolutely feel that is absolutely related. Every single time Elliot is bring up into this into the mix something happens traumatically to other characters. I have this feeling that the only reason they gave Christopher Maloney his own show was to solely bring him back to us for you simply because that’s not a single episode of s for you that goes by since he’s come back with his own show that Olivia is not concerned about Elliot or concerned about Elliot’s case or concerned about anything and everything to do with organize crime.
Yeah they do crossover shows when you’re part of a franchise but Olivia wasn’t this obsessed with Hank or his crew you know you know she wasn’t concerned about Chicago at all that much but all the sudden Elliott comes back into the picture and now the show is all about Elliot and his team and what’s going on with a little bit of sex crimes thrown in there just to to try and break up the monotony.
They keep pushing this relationship in between Vincent and staler when it is completely completely the polar opposite of what SVU is about. Elliott has had anger issues whole entire franchise and no one seems to realize this. Everyone seems to think oh it’s cute oh he’s always left her she’s always left him but the simple fact of the matter is is there half an episode whenever Olivia was talking to amaro and she said herself that she has grown more and done more with him as her partner than she was ever able to do with Elliot as her partner so what does that tell you?
He’s verbally and mentally abusive and when he gets to a point where he’s physically abusive he goes and he beats the crap out of some poor inanimate objects say a locker or something. Last time I checked it’s for you was about looking out for those signs of abuse any kind of abuse but yet they’re pushing this relationship in between Olivia and Elliot which doesn’t make any sense at all considering Elliott’s track record being completely aggressive towards anything that doesn’t go his way in anybody that comes into Olivia’s life that might take her attention away from him.
So yes I absolutely agree and believe that this whole thing with getting rid of perfectly great characters especially gay characters has a lot to do with Elliot being back and the fact that SVU doesn’t or law and order itself doesn’t see gay people as a legitimate working part of society and they rather use them as ratings grabbers then take the time to get to know this character and get to know what they’re about.
I also hate Stabler/Benson.
Hmmm… That makes sense.
I don’t like stabler/benson either
Let Stabler and Benson just be old friends/coworkers. The idea of lovers makes me go ugh!!
I am just not interested in Stabler. Heaps of better partners for Olivia followed.
Well said, never liked Stabler, I think he was looking for work
I stopped watching after Nick left but then started watching again I’m not caught up but I really have liked everyone except Brian he was so annoying I’m so glad he left and
I love Finn show is still good after all these years Angela Centonze VanBrunt
I miss Amaro too
Enough.
Every show does not have to represent every single race, gender and sexual orientation.
The show is about a group of 5-10 people any given season. It is not only possible, but extremely likely that there are many groups of police in NYC this size that do not have any LGBTQ+ members.
What’s the point of watching a show if you only get the same white, cisgendered, and heterosexual perspective? As a viewer, I want to see more diversity because it brings more opportunities to tell great stories. With all the people that have been mains on SVU, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect a couple have been or will be LGBTQ+ and/or BIPOC characters. Especially given the climate of police brutality and racism in policing, it would make sense to have some non-white characters to tell some of those stories. There is space for everyone and representation matters even if it doesn’t matter to YOU.
Thank you. You said what I wanted to without eviscerating the close-minded WASP.
Ditto Sydney!
It is not close-minded. I have no interest in what anyone does.
My issue is that every show does not have to have it. Every group of friends, every police department, every close group of doctors, every couple of friends in an office is not multi-racial and multi-gendered.
You don’t need to see a French transgender man to enjoy a TV show.
I don’t see you complaining about the heaps of white people on TV… that gets pretty darn old…
Kat was a janky character. Sure she was a lesbian, but she was also a manhater. Gotta represent that! She also acted like a a cisgendered dude with her hobbies: boxing competition and talking smack. She didn’t fit in well with the cast.
Olivia has always been a man-hater and somehow she is still around….
I just feel like if people don’t like what’s going on in the show then don’t watch it. It’s as plain as that. Rather you like the characters or not the show will go on and you will still be complaining.. It’s pointless.
Seriously Boxing is a a cisgender dude hobby? Cuz I’m a cisgender chic and I grew up boxing and in martial arts and even did MMA for a while because I loved it and talking smack is not a male thing either you should hear women before competition.
You are a bigoted, closeminded, mooncalf. Your post is disgusting.
👏👏👏
I completely agree with you.
Nicely said!
WOW. Your comments indicate that your a racist person. Who cares what color the characters are. Reminder Martin Luther King’s dream: A color blind society. Comments like yours are an insult to his memory.
BRAVO!
That shows your bias, sexism, racism and potentially much more.
If a show had an entirely transgender cast I wouldn’t watch or not watch because of that alone. Not being transgender would have no bearing on my decision.
It comes down to what the show is about. Adding a token bisexual character demeans the movement for equality and representation more than anything.
I would rather have meaty roles given to LGBTQ+ people. I’d rather have a show with a 90% non-white cast because those people all nailed their auditions.
But with this character it is clear NBC said, “Hey, let’s add a gay person to the team!” Why? If you were a fan of SVU why do you care about this, particularly because we never see her dating life on the show at all.
Plenty of white people enjoyed The Cosby Show and plenty of non-white people enjoyed Seinfeld. Why do you think that is?
Thank you. Very well said.
My Reply was to Henry. Why did it come up so far down?
Enough? You don’t get to tell someone ‘enough’ when they express their opinion simply because you don’t like it.
It never occurs to bigoted, misogynistic, white, males that their perceived superiority and authority isn’t absolute absolutely everywhere.
And there it is, randomly throwing around words that end in phic. When you don’t have an argument, resort to shouting trigger words.
I am interested in good characters and good stories on shows like this. I could not care less what someone’s sexual orientation is.
There have been plenty of iconic gay characters, mostly because that is not the only defining characteristic of them.
What you’re advocating for is ignoring whether a character is any good or not and just wanting “REPRESENTATION!” That argument is actually setting the movement back.
LMG Male & white? Not a single clue what it is to not be represented. *rolls eyrs*
Yes, diverse represention is necessary and realistic. Only haters cry about equal & realistic representation.
Totally agree!!
Thank god she’s leaving the show. I have watched every episode of this show and she’s the worst character by far. She’s always upset and condescending. She’s also miserable and a bigot. I personally know 5 people that stopped watching the show because of her.
Great decision NBC.
Don’t blame the actor, blame the character (or the writers who did a terrible job of developing the character or the producers who wouldn’t let them develop the character better).
As a long time fan, she wasn’t an interesting character and I’m not going to miss her. I think most folks want to see what’s going to happen with Rollins and Carisi.
As a long time fan of the show…I personally hate the whole Rollins and Carisi act. 🤷🏽♀️
That is the most interesting side plot I think they should have a spin off show. I forkin love them and it is better than watching Kitty Kat throw a side hook
Hate to see you go.
Getting rid of minorities again, SVU? Shocking I tell ya. Already did it with Amaro. And don’t get me started on the ageism with Cragen and Munch. But hey as long as EO is endgame, right.
Munch was actually costing more money due to the arrangement with 1 of the Homicide: Life on the Street creators.
The character was licensed to SVU on a really strange deal. There were 3 creators involved – 2 opted to not take any pay while the 3rd held out for $X per SCREEN MINUTE pay (not per episode which is the norm) since this was a higher cost.
That’s why Munch was always a background player except for maybe 2 episodes every season when it was him and Fin as the central ones.
And every year, that price per minute kept going up.
Thanks for the info. Always wondered why he was never given much time when he was such a great character. They should definitely keep the tradition and give him a guest appearance in Organized Crime since he has been in every Law & Order offshoot.
The NYPD has mandatory retirement at age 63. You can fudge that a little with the characters’ actual ages vs. the actors, but Munch was clearly well over it.
Do yourself a favor next time, before you comment and trying to be all “woke”, do the bare min. and do a tiny bit of research.
The Amaro actor wanted out for a few years.
The older characters were written out as a cost saving decision as a long running show.
People like you is why the world is in the state we are right now! #stirrers
Cragen leaving had nothing to do with ageism. They had to stick close to the NYPD required age of retirement and he was right at that age. I think Munch just wanted out so he could move to France which he has.
I can see Barnes leaving, because they never really felt like they knew what to do with the character. But Kat is a surprise, especially how much they have focused on her this past season.
I really liked Kat and am sorry to see her go. I thought her character added some much needed dimension to a show that is starting to show it’s age. Too bad they made that decision, it wasn’t a good one.
I really liked Kat too. Her story lines with the transgirl and other LGBTI characters was refreshing and interesting.
I will really miss her and hope she is not “killed” off just in case the opportunity for her return arises..
I feel like they gave Kat, as a character, a lot of prominence recently and tried to make her work. But it’s just not super interesting TV. The character is very one dimensional. Looking forward to seeing who they hire to replace her! Hopefully someone of color.
Maybe they should write her better instead of just getting rid of her character.
Clarification, Hyder was a series regular in season 21 following her recurring for a few episodes.
Well that just sucks!
Won’t miss Demore Barnes….but Jamie Gray Hyder was a great addition to the cast. They’re running thin on detectives now.
So sorry to see both of them go. They offered a different dimension to the show
She didn’t fit in. For me she didn’t have personality. She was blah.
Good luck on her next gig
Totally agree!!!
Agree
SVU has been on WAAAYYYY too LOOOOONG! Stabler doesn’t change. I don’t enjoy show only reason I sometimes watch is on Thursday their is nothing else
I don’t like new SVU organized crime.
Absolutely not happy at all. I love the character of Kat. She has a no nonsense attitude about her. She is a strong person. The unit needs more people. Not less. I hope they get new cops in the SVU unit. As for the Chief. I think it’s sad that his character is being written out. It started because he admit there is police misconduct in the department. This issue need to be explored more because this is a issue in real life and to make his a sacrificial lamb is wrong. The right thing to do is make his character strong and no matter what he survives the injustice instead of getting rid of his character. The show writers is doing nothing , but sacrificing a black man who is standing up to racist behavior cops.
“Is this because I’m a thespian?”
No, TD… it’s because SVU doesn’t really handle same sex relationships all that well. Oh, the irony.
It was way back in 2005 when Serena Southerlyn asked “Is this because I”m a lesbian?” after getting fired on the original “L&O.” Amazing if things haven’t changed that much since then.
@TD “thespian”? 😁😁😁😁😁 (I know that might’ve been an autocorrect mishap, but it’s still hilarious!)
I love them all
They just didn’t gel with the cast. It’s that simple.
Being a gay woman it was nice to see a LGBTQ on the show. I love this show but I am really disappointed seeing her go.
I thought she would be there for a while. I actually really liked her. ***sad face **
Sad Times Indeed!
Well, this is what is legally called a miscarriage of justice (occurs when a grossly unfair outcome results from a television show that has run past its course), but in this case the unfair outcome is two actors punished for whatever (probably “Mo-money) by whoever the powers-that-be are on SVU.
Jamie Gray Hyder and Demore Barnes are last ones hired, first ones fired. The old good ole-boys technique applied in living color. As for Hargitay, Karma boomeranged when her social media revealed she broke her ankle and needed surgery to address the damage. Ooh, soo soorryy BooBoo. (:(
I guess it is more intriguing to have a single Mom/Recovering gambling addict/Who sleeps around with other undercover personnel (baby daddy)/Who is now after Peter Scanavino (former Detective/ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi Jr). Kelli Giddish (Amanda Rollins) and her backwoods drama should exit the show! Stage Left, make a hole as she exit.
May be then, the drama will be on the secondary characters that SVU are enlisted to help instead of the bedrooms of the main characters, including Hargitay. I can see the two shows merging as one when Benson and Elliot begin a romance that will bring him home to SVU.
Watch out Fin! Your head is coming to the chopping block as they write you out as a newly married/retired/stay at home husband that Hargitay can drop by and vent to when things get tough. I need to be writing the scripts, Lol….
While I very much want to see E&O get together, I don’t want to see it happen until the last season of show (which I think will be 24). There would be no reason to make it the Law & Order E&O Romance show. As for Fin, he has nothing to worry about. He is too much an integral part of SVU.
The Kat character was not very liked, at least based on comments I read all season on L&O’s FB page. I liked her. I found her a bit rough at first but realized she came from Vice to the SVU. She learned SVU was very different from Vice and was compassionate to the victims. I hate that she’s leaving. I’m more disappointed by the exit of Christian Garland. I always felt we didn’t know him very well. Finally, in last season’s finale I felt we were starting to get to know him when we met his wife and daughter. Thought we’d see more of him this season and was looking forward to it. Now they’re both gone.
I’m glad they’re both gone I hated their characters and them bringing politics more into the show
My concern with this announcement was that this was a budget-related shrinking of the cast, and there would not be new characters to replace them. A problem both for representation and just for the quality of the show. This news unfortunately suggests that’s probably the case.
I really loved Kat, ‘s character, why is she leaving?
Very disappointing decision, especially after the expanding of Kat as a character.
Yes sad and TYPICAL OF THE TYPE
I YA GET MY DRIFT.
I knew that NBC was not going to be fair.
Oh well TYPICAL… WE WILL NOT BE SUV WATCHERS ANY LONGER SHAME..
IT WAS A WONDERFUL SHOW. BUT COLOR AND HATE GOT IN THE WAY…
SVU, unless you’re watching a show about Jeeps.
Color? What are you talking about? Ice-T is a fixture on the show. Not everything has to be about race in this toxic woke era. Demore Barnes was criminally underused this past season. I think it’s a question of the writers not knowing what to do with him. The same goes for the character of Kat. The way the writers wrote her character made her quite unlikeable to the show’s base audience. During the off-season the show runners must’ve decided to make some changes in order to assuage their fan base and protect their ratings, while creating new opportunities to tell new stories and introduce new and intriguing characters, regardless of race, creed or sexual orientation.
Should’ve been Kelli Giddish. SO sick of the narcissistic Rollins drama. Rollins is so far past her use by date it reeks. 😬😬😬
Interesting behind the scenes talk. Kat took a little to grow on me and then enjoyed her. It is the writers that make the characters.
Didn’t get to know Garlands character well enough but he was doomed from the start. I went back and watch some episodes after the news came out about those two leaving
The year they almost lost me the the year year Benson got kidnapped and held hostage but redeemed themselves the next year.