Pauley Perrette chose to leave NCIS after Season 15. She said she had made the decision the year before and, when discussing it in 2018, emphasized that it was considered rather than impulsive. She did not give one detailed public account of every private reason behind it. Perrette also explicitly rejected the rumor that she was leaving to start a skincare line.
Why did Pauley Perrette leave NCIS?
Perrette announced on October 4, 2017, that Season 15 would be her last as Abby Sciuto. In her announcement, she said, “It was a decision made last year.” In a May 2018 interview with TV Insider, she described it as a decision she made herself “after a lot of thought.”
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NCIS: The Fifteenth Season | $16.48 | Buy on Amazon |
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NCIS Season 15 [DVD] [2019] | $29.35 | Buy on Amazon |
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Perrette framed her announcement as an effort to show care for Abby and the character’s fans. She said she did not want the departure to feel harmful, shocking, or out of the blue. Those statements establish her public explanation: a considered personal choice, announced in a way she felt respected the character and viewers. They do not establish every private factor behind the choice.
Was the skincare-line rumor true?
No. Perrette rejected claims that she was leaving to launch a skincare line with Dr. Oz, as well as related claims that CBS and NCIS were angry with her. In the TV Insider interview, she called the skincare story “a scam, it’s a financial scam,” and said of the claims, “None of which is true, not a single part of that.”
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- NCIS: The Fifteenth Season Box Set Maria Bello (Actor), Rocky Carroll
- Actors: Maria Bello, Rocky Carroll, Mark Harmon, David McCallum
Was she fired, or did CBS plan her exit?
The public announcement presented Abby’s departure as Perrette’s decision to leave at the end of the season, not as a firing. CBS said it respected her decision. Executive producers George Schenck and Frank Cardea said they had known for some time that it would be Perrette’s final season and were working toward a special send-off, according to CBS News.
When did Abby Sciuto leave NCIS?
Perrette’s final season was Season 15, after roughly 15 years playing Abby. Her farewell episode aired on May 8, 2018, as reported by CBS Los Angeles. The contemporary coverage establishes that the show gave Abby a planned farewell, but it is not a scene-by-scene account of the episode’s plot.
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- Genre: TV Action & Adventure
- Number of Discs: 24
- Number of Tracks: 0
- Rating: NR
- Number of Movies: 0
What is known—and what remains unclear
Perrette publicly said she chose to leave and had given the decision serious thought. The sources cited here do not provide one comprehensive explanation of all her private motives. A May 15, 2018 CBS News headline referred to her tweeting about “multiple physical assaults,” but the report itself is not available in the source material used here; the headline alone cannot establish details or serve as a complete explanation for her departure.
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