{"id":344110,"date":"2025-12-12T09:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T09:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344110\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T09:28:08","slug":"matlock-boss-on-david-del-rios-firing-writing-off-billy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344110\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Matlock’ Boss on David Del Rio’s Firing, Writing Off Billy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cMatlock<\/a>\u201d is undergoing some changes. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn early October, David Del Rio<\/a>, who portrays associate Billy Martinez, was removed from the set and fired after a sexual assault allegation<\/a>. Season 2 was already in production when the incident occurred, and Del Rio had already filmed seven episodes. \u201cPrior Bad Acts,\u201d which aired on Dec. 4, marked his final appearance, showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman confirms to Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat episode ended with Billy telling his pregnant girlfriend, \u201cI do want to get married,\u201d an odd-sounding line that appeared to have been mashed together later. While Snyder Urman didn\u2019t confirm that was the case, she said, \u201cI\u2019ll just say there were creative changes that we had to make, and we made them. We\u2019re ending up in a different place than what our plans were, but we really stopped and tried to think about how we can have an exit that makes sense in the world of our show and for the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the Dec. 11 midseason finale, Sarah (Leah Lewis) reveals Billy has taken a personal day from work, then later learns his pregnant girlfriend has had a miscarriage. \u201cHis exit will be explained in the course of the next two episodes, and it is really in line with the character and in line with what\u2019s happening with the firm at large,\u201d Snyder Urman says. \u201cWe want to remain true to the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Snyder Urman said she\u2019s \u201cnot able to discuss the events\u201d surrounding the allegations made against Del Rio that led to his firing, she added: \u201cWe just sort of plugged in and kept moving forward. We\u2019re just all happy to be back, and focused on the work. I think that\u2019s the thing \u2014 we want the show to be great. We want it to be joyful for the audience to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Lewis has never confirmed her involvement with the allegations, after the news broke that Del Rio had been fired, she shared a message via Instagram in which she wrote, \u201cMom is here, we\u2019re moving forward in love and strength. I\u2019m in good hands. Thank you to everybody for any kind of support and care. Truly, we\u2019re moving forward in strength. Key word, strength. Please, let that be the takeaway.\u201d Del Rio\u2019s wife, in turn, posted and deleted a photo of her and her own mom with text that read, \u201cMom is here. We\u2019re moving forward in love and strength after what Leah did to our family. Thank you all for the love and support!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the show, Lewis\u2019 character is facing a tough road ahead in Season 2, having been she was removed from Olympia\u2019s (Skye P. Marshall) team during the midseason finale after lying to her boss. Plus, the merger is moving full steam ahead, which means no one\u2019s jobs are safe. One positive note? Olympia and Matty (Kathy Bates) are finally back on the same team again.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat relationship is just everything to me,\u201d Snyder Urman said of Matty and Olympia. \u201cIf I could headline the back half of the season, it\u2019s joy, because we have so much fun coming in with some new characters, some returning, and then we start flipping cards left and right. There\u2019s a certain amount of joy that that brings, in terms of telling the story and getting answers. And then we get to have Matty and Olympia working together \u2014 this intergenerational friendship that was unexpected, but means everything to them both. They look at all these obstacles, but work on them together, which to me is a relief, because I hate writing them in conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPlus, two new characters will be introduced in the back half of Season 2:\u00a0Sarah Wright Olsen as Gwen, an efficiency expert analyzing the firm; and Henry Haber as Hunter, a younger associate and \u201ctotal bro.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMatlock\u201d returns to CBS with new episodes on Thursday, Feb. 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMatlock\u201d is undergoing some changes. In early October, David Del Rio, who portrays associate Billy Martinez, was removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[120950,88,2766,92],"class_list":["post-344110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-david-del-rio","tag-entertainment","tag-matlock","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}