{"id":447803,"date":"2026-02-04T03:50:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447803\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T03:50:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:50:07","slug":"david-zayas-replaces-timothy-busfield-in-recasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447803\/","title":{"rendered":"David Zayas Replaces Timothy Busfield In Recasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Zayas<\/a> (Dexter) has been tapped to replace Timothy Busfield<\/a> in a pulled episode of Law & Order: SVU<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tNBC shelved the episode, titled \u201cCorrosive\u201d and scheduled to air January 15, which was to feature Busfield in a guest-starring role as a judge. The decision came days after\u00a0an arrest warrant was issued<\/a> for the actor-director-producer, who was charged with two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and child abuse.<\/p>\n

\n\tNBC confirmed Tuesday that Zayas was recast as the judge, the episode was shot and will air on February 26.<\/p>\n

\n\tSex crimes are at the heart of\u00a0Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.\u00a0The \u201cCorrosive\u201d episode deals with abuse, focusing on a troubling case involving a respected judge\u2019s life being threatened. The SVU team is called to investigate, leading them down a complex path that connects to an anonymous video posted to their tip line. As the plot unfolds, the episode tackles heavy themes of trauma and recovery, showcasing the efforts of Detective Amanda Rollins (Kelli Giddish) to support a victim facing their past abuse.<\/p>\n

\n\tBusfield\u2019s charges stem from allegations of inappropriate behavior toward two child stars on the New Mexico set of the Fox\/Warner Bros TV drama series\u00a0The Cleaning Lady,\u00a0on which the\u00a0Thirtysomething\u00a0alum served as director and executive producer.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf found guilty, Busfield could face a minimum of three years behind bars.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe matter first came to authorities\u2019 attention in late 2024 when a doctor from University of New Mexico Hospital contacted the Albuquerque Police Department in regards to a \u201csexual abuse investigation\u201d involving the child actors, who are brothers, both born in 2014.<\/p>\n

\n\tWarner Bros TV had conducted its own probe into allegations against Busfield after SAG-AFTRA received an anonymous complaint in early 2025 of an incident on\u00a0The Cleaning Lady\u00a0set from December 2024. As Deadline\u00a0reported<\/a>, it resulted in Busfield being \u201cexonerated.\u201d The studio is cooperating with law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\n\tZayas portrayed Angel Batista in Dexter and reprised the role in the sequel series\u00a0Dexter: New Blood\u00a0and\u00a0Dexter: Resurrection. He recently appeared in The Running Man, and recurred on The Bear and Blue Bloods, among others.<\/p>\n

\n\tNellie Andreeva contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Zayas (Dexter) has been tapped to replace Timothy Busfield in a pulled episode of Law & Order:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[76860,88,107687,12261],"class_list":{"0":"post-447803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-david-zayas","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-law-order-svu","11":"tag-timothy-busfield"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447803","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=447803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}