Image Credit: Adam Rose/FOX
You’ve probably heard by now (and, of course, spent your long weekend weeping into a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos in his honor): Unlike fellow cast members Darren Criss and Harry Shum, Chord Overstreet isn’t being promoted to a series regular on Glee and is only being given an option of occasional appearances.
Over the weekend, fans rallied to keep the actor on the show, specifically by purchasing his cover of “Billionaire” on iTunes. The effort may have pushed the tune into the top 10, but only time will tell if it’s enough to earn their beloved character some more time on screen. Meanwhile, I can’t get my mind past the worst-case scenario here: What if he doesn’t get a proper ending?
Even though Overstreet only joined the cast in season 2, he certainly doesn’t feel like a character we just met, thanks in part to the character development we saw this season. (No, I’m not joking.) The late-season storyline about Sam’s family losing their home after his dad lost his job was timely and heartbreaking. And the season-finale reveal that he was dating Mercedes was a big moment for fans who saw the pair’s chemistry spark during the prom. That’s not to say any other character deserves to be on the cast/show more or less (everyone has an opinion), but simply that I like Sam and will be sad to see him go.
But if he has to leave, I just hope it’s done right. If someone just mentions whilst sitting in the choir room how “sad it was that Sam had to move,” I might get twitchy and bash my TV in. There are two things I hate losing: TVs and time. This would cause a casualty of both.
I understand that TV characters are never forever. They get plucked from us (the viewers) for creative reasons, financial reasons, crazy reasons, and so on. But for all the randomly departing characters (and there will be several departures when we return to our favorite shows after the summer), especially Overstreet’s Sam, all I hope for is a proper ending.
If we can get at least that, fellow fans, will it be easier for you to accept this shakeup as natural order? And how do you envision Sam’s exit?
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They will probably say that he had to move over the summer becuase one of his parents got a job, since you know, they were living in a hotel. They really should keep Sam. Get rid of Blaine, he is as annoying as hell.
Yeah, I was guessing it would be because his parents were able to get jobs somewhere else.
Bummed because I liked Chord and was hoping he’d get a chance to be quirky w/Mercedes. Having less and less reasons to keep watching Glee.
What’s with all the hot guys on this show being turned into chubby-chasers.
NO WAY on the planet that Sam or Puck would EVER go for the pair of pork-o’s that they’re paired up with now!!
Zeiss and Mercedes?? Please – they are both waaaaaayyyy too fat to be phat!!!
Mercedes is cute and it feels believable that Sam would date Mercedes. But Puck and that big girl it just doesn’t feel…honest. It feels contrived.
maybe since the dated the “hot” girls and they were b*tches, he tried something more real.
Agreed with dumping Blaine. I can’t stand him or the Warblers and I think they were the most annoying addition to Glee in S2. Sadly, I think FOX did themselves a disservice by giving them a 2-year extension… And why didn’t they hire some writers before now. Seems crazy that they would not have had a better long term plan.
Agreed, I hate how every song the warbs sing everybody says its the best thing ever. To me it just sounds bland.
So stop watching.
Eric P is spot on. can’t stand any of the Warblers.
Darren would of stayed either way. Stop blaming him for Chord’s leaving. I love them both but Darren is a great singer and has much more to finish off before he leaves the show.
Blaine and The Warblers were part of what got me through the second season.
Agreed. Blaine, unlike Sam is a boring and undeveloped character whose only connection to the story is through Kurt, while Sam is a well adored member of the New Directions family who couldn’t get chopped off just like Matt after season 1.
Sam is well-adored? Please. For some like me, Sam is at best, tolerated.
well-adored?????? seriously??? his abs are adored, nothing else.
I found him annoying. I will not be sad to see him go.
OF COURSE Blaine is underdeveloped! He wasn’t meant to be on the show as much as he was…there have been hints on the show about his home life…next season will be when they develop him more. Sam would be more developed because the show is meant to be mostly about the New Directions kids.
SO totally agree about ridding our screen of Blaine. Loved him that first episode he was on, but my like for him went down every time he was on screen. And, by the end of the season could not stand him. BRING BACK SAM. BRING BACK SAM. BRING BACK SAM.
I love Darren Criss and Blaine, but yeah, he proves that too much of a good thing is exactly that- too much.
I totally agree. Sam is fully integrated into the cast, has strong connections to most of them. He’s good friends with Kurt, Artie, Finn, Mike and Puck, he dated Quinn, Santana and now Samcedes, he has a rivalry with Karofsky. We’ve seen his home life. We know he has body image issues, dyslexia, does great impressions, is a dork, etc. Blaine is nothing but a plot device for Kurt. He’s only had one on one scenes with Kurt and one scene with Burt…which was about Kurt. His personality changes with each episode depending on what Kurt’s story needs. (One episode he’s serenading and hugging Kurt at McKinley no problem, the next episode he’s suddenly a gay bashing victim and terrified to show his face there…what?) Sam was the more viable character who could have helped the transition since he’s younger. Why make such a dumb decision to let him go??
Blaine also had scenes with Rachel… even 2 kiss scenes…
@Lily Blaine/Rachel was another Kurt plot to show his views on bisexuality. Also Kurt was there during the scenes with Rachel. Notice their date happened offscreen? Because it wasn’t important.
Because TV networks decisions have zero to do with storylines and 100 percent to do with the bottom line. Darren made them a lot more money with iTunes sales and brought a lot more publicity than Chord. It’s that simple. Plus they want to keep an extremely popular, lucrative show going, so they’re making the really creatively dumb decision of bringing in newbies to continue on after the current kids leave, so they probably cut Chord cause he was the newest (except Darren) and didn’t have a series regular contract yet.
Maybe the hotel needed the room.
ikr he annoys me so much. i wish sam would stay. he is so yummy!!!
sam is so hot i want to go out with him
The sad thing is because he’s not involved in Kurt’s story he’s not likely to get a proper ending. It’s sad, but their is only one storyline where Ryan Murphy cares about continuity and closure.
I agree. Ryan Murphy is trying to push his personal agenda on viewers and I hate it! The Kurt storyline arc was too overbearing to watch and it looks like that storyline will continue into next season.
Ryan Murphy already has Santana to push his gay agenda… and seeing all these side-projects of Chris Colfer, I don’t think that Kurt will be that prominent in Season 3… if Blaine wants to stay on Glee… he should be more than just “Kurt’s boyfriend”… Confrontation with Karofsky maybe ? Face-off with Artie or Puck ? hope so…
FYI Brad Falchuk, a straight man with kids, is the one who writes most of Kurt’s storyline.
I’d have to agree with that. It felt as if half the show took place at McKinley, the other half at the Academy. Way too much time was given to Kurt having googly eyes for Blaine and Blaine wanting to date everyone else but Kurt. They wanted to show that gay folks can have healthy relationships. That’s fine, but it sacrificed the integrity of the show. Because of it, we got less development for other characters and storylines and the show suffered for it. After last season’s lack of consistency for storylines and character arcs, I don’t think I want to watch next season.
Well Chord was cast to be Kurt’s boyfriend but everyone went crazy over Teenage Dream and Darren so it was dropped. Chord is the better actor and has more chemistry with Chris but they sold the soul of the show for money.
Chord is probably the most bland actor on the show…he has only two emotions. Darren Criss went to a highly prestigious university for acting and was one of only 15 other students in his class. If he weren’t good they wouldn’t have accepted him into UMich School of Theatre, and he wouldn’t have been accepted into NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts.
I wish they would keep Sam and get rid of Lauren. I’m overweight and even I can’t stand her. There’s no development with her, just a lot of (at times) cruel jokes.
Sam, on the other hand, is a sweet, down-to-earth character whose issues I could relate to. Why get rid of him now?
I agree completely. It is time for Lauren to go away forever.
Me too! I can’t stand Lauren…especially with Puck!
Lauren’s awesome, I want to see more of her!
I agree. LOVE Lauren.
What was the point of Lauren, anyway? She can’t sing… and that “Dancing” is horrible. They couldn’t find a big girl that can sing?
zajeff, they did find a big girl who can sing–Amber Riley. But I agree that Lauren’s character serves no valuable purpose on the show.
sorry–azjeff.
I like Lauren as well. Love the character’s confidence – even though I agree – she can’t really sing well … but neither can Harry Shum Jr.
I completely agree.
I can’t stand Lauren! Please make her go away and keep Sam!
Ugh, yes. Please get rid of Lauren and keep Sam!
I find it so strange that they are getting rid of an actor that can actually sing and dance, upgrade an actor that can’t sing AT ALL and keep an actress that can’t sing or dance.
At least Harry Shum Jr. can dance.
He is a talented guy but they never really developed his love of movies and movie quotes which was nice. Instead they just decided to make him homeless and have him date Mercedes? Both came out of the blue because the writers have no consistency.
Hopefully next year they start writing better for the characters (especially Sue) or this show won’t be around much longer.
Murphy is blowing it.
Yeah, they should make a movie special as theme… Sam will revel in it…
“because the writers have no consistency.” Exactly. All they care about is ratings, so they have all these “special” episodes and don’t bother with character development or plot. Sam started out so promising, yet they made him so boring. I don’t care about his body issues; I get them, but they weren’t supposed to be his defining characteristic. I want a TV nerd/geek I can identify with. The writers should really take some tips from J.J. Abrams.
I am just glad there won’t be more renditions by Santana of Trouty Mouth. What a horrible moniker! (Also the fact that he dyed his hair brown and looks like a mini Finn probably did help Ryan Murphy decide who to cut.)
I think his current color is closer to natural vs hiw blondness. I think he looks better with darker hair and the hair cut.
He only had the dark hair for a few weeks. He went back to blond for the tour.
I think he’s boring but likable. The gang should sing him off proper.
So he’s not going to be a full-time cast member and he’ll just be around for several episodes.
Uh…isn’t that exactly what he was this season? He was never part of the main cast and was always listed as a guest star.
hence why the article says “isn’t being promoted to a series regular.”
But then the writer of the article goes on to say that she hopes they give him a good send off. So I’m confused as well, just because they aren’t promoting him to series regular doesn’t mean he won’t be on the show anymore, to me, it just means they only have to pay him for the shows he is on – not all of them.
I hope they give him a proper send-off, especially since they’d actually started giving the character some real development toward the end of season 2. But overall, I’m not too fussed. Just waiting to hear about Max Adler’s status for season 3. You want to talk about characters left hanging over the summer? Dave Karofsky was left scared, sad and totally alone! Definitely want to see that change come fall!
How dare Fox. That’s all I can say.
Good endings are always key. The bad ending that has been foremost in my mind lately has been Jude and Tommy from Instant Star. With the DVDs being released, I watched a whole bunch of episodes and the finale again, and it was just depressing. I wish TeenNick or another network would resurrect that show. But with Glee, it’s gonna be like this season is a sort of series finale…because everyone will be leaving and the writers have to wrap up their stories. Ryan’s gonna have a hard time finding new people who have so much talent and chemistry. Lea Michele pretty much makes the show!
I agree 100%. I’m probably done after this season. No new blood could ever measure up to the original cast. If I do watch after this season, it’ll probably be for Brittany. She’s too stupid to graduate on time.
No need to bring back Sam. Just say he moved away over the summer.
Yep – Sam was boring and very meh all around
Isn’t this season supposed to be senior year? So I don’t see why he’d have to move. Just have people mention him enough to make it clear he’s around even if he’s not on camera, and give him an ending at graduation with everyone else.
Sam wasn’t a Senior.
who cares. he brought nothing to the show. milquetoast. bye!!!
Awwwww. Sam was one of my favorites. Stand-up guy, friendly, cute personality (I LOVED his random Sean Connery). I like Blaine okay too, but Sam and maybe Artie are my favorite male characters. It’s a shame they might be dumping him from the show. Hopefully he’ll still appear regularly, just not as a main cast member? (The way he did this past season.)
Sam’s ending will probably be like Matt’s (The guy in the New Directions from Season 1) ending, no one saw him, but Mr.Schue says he transferred, that’s how it’s gonna happen. But on a other note I want to know even though Harry Shun Jr. has been in Glee longer than Chord Overstreet and Darren Criss, why is he getting promoted to a Series Regular? like both Chord & Darren had more speaking lines than Harry in Season 2 than Harry had in Season 1 & 2 put together!
Mike Chang, his abs, and sweet dance moves are very popular. Even the creator has said he wants to know more about both Tina and Mike.
Sorry, but Sam is not in the same league with that matt guy. No one knew his name, he barely had any lines. He was pure background. Sam was way more integral to the series.
Darren Criss because money (music sales). Harry Schum because abs (eye candy = viewership = money).
Also cause Harry’s been around since like the third episode and everyone else around since then or earlier have already become regulars, so it makes sense.
Fans took notice of Harry Shum Jr. from the first episode he was in – especially when the writers named him “The OTher Asian” as a joke (and left the other extra male dancer floating in the wind). People love Mike and Tina (even more than Artie and Tina) I believe. You always want to see more of Harry’s and Heather Morris’ dancing even though neither are the best singers (Heather is better but not a great singer). You always want to see more of Tina’s and Mike’s relationship. Its not a suprise to me that he was promoted.
Ryan said the exact soame word last summer about wanting to get to know someone. He said he wanted to gt to know Rachel’s dads. That didn’t happen , Ryan lies.
I hate to see him go. He regularly made me laugh especially when he was being ridiculously awkward (see: Sean Connery impersonation). I really wanted to see where his relationship with Mercedes was going to go. I mean they could have even gone the biracial couple route as it is middle America and still an issue. I hope they do give him a proper send off and not just say his dad got a job and they had to move (though that would be realistic).