{"id":622012,"date":"2026-10-06T06:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622012\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T06:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:30:12","slug":"why-chesapeake-shores-star-jesse-metcalfe-left-the-hallmark-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/622012\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Chesapeake Shores Star Jesse Metcalfe Left The Hallmark Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                             &#13;<br \/>\n                                                    &#13;<br \/>\n                            &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/intro-1790953293.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/2275730\/why-jesse-metcalfe-left-hallmark-series-chesapeake-shores\/\" data-post-id=\"2275730\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-slide-title=\"Why Chesapeake Shores Star Jesse Metcalfe Left The Hallmark Series: \" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Trace Riley standing on a porch at night\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                    Hallmark<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesse Metcalfe played musician Trace Riley \u2014 the sometimes romantic interest for Abby O&#8217;Brien (Meghan Ory) \u2014 on &#8220;Chesapeake Shores&#8221; for the majority of the series. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/casting-news\/jesse-metcalfe-leaving-chesapeake-shores-season-5-hallmark-1234657002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Metcalfe&#8217;s exit around Season 5<\/a> devastated fans, who&#8217;d fallen in love with his character&#8217;s journey with Abby. When the news was initially announced in March 2021, Hallmark revealed that Metcalfe&#8217;s storyline would conclude at the start of Season 5. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2021\/03\/jesse-metcalfe-exits-chesapeake-shores-hallmark-channel-season-5-1234725326\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Deadline<\/a>, he was supposedly about to film his last scenes. However, his reason for exiting wasn&#8217;t addressed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In August 2021, Metcalfe spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.etonline.com\/jesse-metcalfe-opens-up-about-leaving-chesapeake-shores-and-if-hed-come-back-exclusive-170839\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ET<\/a>\u00a0and revealed that there were multiple factors that influenced his departure from &#8220;Chesapeake Shores.&#8221;\u00a0For starters, he felt he had nowhere to go with the character. Then, there was the revolving door of showrunners who came through the show. &#8220;Getting to know a new showrunner and create a working relationship with a new person was not necessarily something I wanted to do,&#8221; he continued.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Metcalfe was also looking for something new. &#8220;I just felt like it was time to turn the page and start the next chapter of my career,&#8221; he continued, adding, &#8220;I definitely wanted to pursue my film career with greater focus and also find the next challenge.&#8221; He also noted wanting to get on a &#8220;critically acclaimed cable TV show again&#8221; to help assist in growing his career. If you&#8217;re missing Trace and Abby and all the other romances in &#8220;Chesapeake Shores,&#8221; we&#8217;ve compiled some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/2248796\/tv-shows-like-hallmark-chesapeake-shores\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shows just like the Hallmark series<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                What has Jesse Metcalfe done since Chesapeake Shores?<\/p>\n<p>                                             &#13;<br \/>\n                                                    &#13;<br \/>\n                            &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/what-has-jesse-metcalfe-done-since-chesapeake-shores-1790953294.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/2275730\/why-jesse-metcalfe-left-hallmark-series-chesapeake-shores\/\" data-post-id=\"2275730\" data-slide-num=\"1\" data-slide-title=\"Why Chesapeake Shores Star Jesse Metcalfe Left The Hallmark Series: What has Jesse Metcalfe done since Chesapeake Shores?\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Jesse Metcalfe standing in front of a clothing store\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                    Rachpoot\/bauer-griffin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesse Metcalfe has kept incredibly busy since leaving &#8220;Chesapeake Shores.&#8221; After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/recaps\/chesapeake-shores-jesse-metcalfe-leaves-trace-season-5-episode-2-recap-1234711252\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wrapping up Trace&#8217;s storyline<\/a>, he starred in\u00a0&#8220;Fortress&#8221;\u00a0with\u00a0Bruce Willis that same year. The movie centers on a retired CIA agent and his estranged son, who seek refuge in a state-of-the-art bunker after getting attacked by a former enemy. &#8220;Fortress: Sniper&#8217;s Eye&#8221; was released in 2022.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In 2023, Metcalfe appeared in one episode of the Lifetime miniseries, &#8220;V.C. Andrews&#8217; Dawn.&#8221; That same year, he debuted &#8220;On a Wing and a Prayer,&#8221; which tells the real-life story of Doug White, who has to take the reins of an airplane after the pilot dies. Metcalfe played Kari Sorenson, who &#8220;manages to help Doug do the impossible, which is land this very complicated aircraft in bad weather, and save himself and his family&#8221; (via <a href=\"https:\/\/roughdraftatlanta.com\/2023\/04\/07\/in-conversation-with-jesse-metcalfe-star-of-on-a-wing-and-a-prayer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rough Draft Atlanta<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Additionally, Metcalfe has also appeared in several TV movies, including &#8220;Absolutely Devoted to You,&#8221; &#8220;Summer Sparks,&#8221; and &#8220;Harmony from the Heart&#8221; over the years. His latest projects include the horror film &#8220;The Possession at Gladstone Manor&#8221; and the comedy film &#8220;Mister Fun.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Hallmark Jesse Metcalfe played musician Trace Riley \u2014&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-622012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}