{"id":584982,"date":"2026-04-15T04:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/584982\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T04:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T04:00:10","slug":"doc-series-regular-felicity-huffman-exit-as-blair-underwood-joins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/584982\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Doc’ Series Regular & Felicity Huffman Exit As Blair Underwood Joins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the two-part Season 2 finale of Fox\u2019s Doc<\/a>, \u201cStuck\/Happy Birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Katie (Charlotte Fountain-Jardim) has played a key part in her mom Amy\u2019s recovery after her accident, with the duo\u2019s reconciliation among Amy\u2019s biggest achievements as she embarked on becoming a better person while grappling with memory loss.<\/p>\n

\n\tKatie had a pivotal role this season, in which Fountain-Jardim was a series regular after recurring in Season 1. The college orientation road trip she took with her parents, Amy (Molly Parker) and Michael (Omar Metwally) made Michael rethink his professional priorities and trade his CMO post for a hands-on Chief of Internal Medicine position. It also confirmed the feelings exes Michael and Amy still have for each other, creating a rift in Amy\u2019s relationship with Jake.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut now that Katie is off to Northwestern, Fountain-Jardim will no longer be a series regular in the upcoming third season. She is expected to guest star. That is common practice for series where children of lead characters graduate high school and go to off to college. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKatie\u2019s off to college, and that\u2019s a different chapter for Amy and Michael, which is appropriate and a good shift,\u201d Doc executive producer\/co-showrunner Hank Steinberg<\/a> said, indicating that there \u201cmight be a slight time jump\u201d between seasons. \u201cEmpty nest is a whole other psychological, emotional challenge for people, especially for Amy, who doesn\u2019t remember all that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSteinberg, who co-runs series with developer Barbie Kligman, stressed that Katie will remain part of Doc in her new capacity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe love the character, and we adore Charlotte, so she will be in the show, but she will not be living at home; she\u2019ll be off in Chicago at school,\u201d Steinberg said. \u201cSo she will be in the show as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tL-R: Omar Metwally, Molly Parker and Charlotte Fountain-Jardim in the \u201cOrientation\u201d episode of \u2018Doc\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\tSeason-Long Series Regular Arcs: Huffman Out, Underwood In\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDoc started off with Scott Wolf<\/a> brought in for a season-long recurring arc as Amy\u2019s morally compromised adversary Dr. Richard Miller in Season 1. That was followed by a one-year series regular deal with Felicity Huffman<\/a> to play Amy\u2019s mentor and friend Dr. Joan Ridley in Season 2 and now a one-year deal for Blair Underwood<\/a> to portray trauma and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Ben Grant in Season 3.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs this going to be the series\u2019 MO, introducing a new arc with big name every season? <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know if we\u2019re going to do a big name every season but Felicity was fantastic,\u201d Steinberg said. \u201cWe had a concept from the beginning that it would be a one-year deal. And we always knew that she was going to come in, she was going to be sick and hiding her illness, and by the end she would die in some heroic fashion, in a way that would be cathartic for Amy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Season 1 was plotted, the producers had no idea whether the show would do well, so Huffman was introduced at the start of Season 2. Doc\u2018s breakout success, leading to a 22-episode Season 2 renewal, gave the creative team the confidence to kick off Underwood\u2019s storyline in the Season 2 finale, a decision made before the series was picked up<\/a> for a 22-episode third season.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s fun bringing in new characters that boost things up and energize,\u201d Steinberg said. \u201cBlair\u2019s incredible; he\u2019s so charismatic, and he was organic, new energy. Bringing a surgeon also, we have a lot of our medical stories pass through surgery, and we didn\u2019t really have a surgeon character to anchor that side of things. So it felt like a cool way to add that element into the show through a character who has a past with Amy. It feels fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo find out more about Ben\u2019s romantic history with Amy and how it will play out in Season 3, read Part 2 of Deadline\u2019s interview with Steinberg.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBlair Underwood, Felicity Huffman on \u2018Doc\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\tRichard May Not Be Gone For Good\t<\/p>\n

\n\tRichard\u2019s original arc wrapped in Season 1. His villainous character proved popular with fans, and Wolf was brought back for the second half of Season 2 as Richard found a loophole to get reinstated at Westside despite killing a patient and covering it up.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespised by all and facing an HR complaint from Nurse Liz (Conni Miu) over the coverup, Richard redeemed himself when he became infected by a deadly virus in the finale which subsequently struck Amy and Liz, among others. He volunteered for an antiviral which almost killed him, damaging his liver, but, despite still being weak, he offered his blood for a serum to help save others.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was poetic justice that Liz was one of the lucky ones who got the serum and recovered, making Richard quip that they were \u201cnow even.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also beat the virus and, on his way out of the ICU, told Amy, \u201cI think it\u2019s best that I just moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was Richard announcing his departure from Westside but while we have definitely seen the last of Huffman\u2019s Joan who was seen passing away in hospice care at home at the end of the finale, that may not be the case with Wolf\u2019s Richard.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRichard, we are leaving up in the air,\u201d Steinberg said. \u201cWe love Scott, we love the character, we will see If there\u2019s a way to bring him back in a way that make sense. We love him, and the audience loves him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tScott Wolf in the \u201cBest We Can Do\u201d episode of \u2018Doc\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\tNursing Staff: Exit For Lucy, Liz & Julie Remain Recurring\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Season 2 finale marked the first time a Westside staffer has died on screen as Nurse Lucy (Paulyne Wei) succumbed to the deadly virus.<\/p>\n

\n\tLucy was one of several nurses who have recurred consistently on the show, alongside Liz (Miu) and Julie (Claire Armstrong); Wei appeared in 17 episodes, starting with the series premiere. <\/p>\n

\n\tNurse Liz in particular had a strong arc at the end of the second season as she found her voice and stood up to Richard. Could that lead to Miu getting promoted to a series regular in Season 3?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe love Conni, and we love that character of Liz,\u201d Steinberg said. \u201cHow that develops, we\u2019ll see. We have a lot of characters to service in 44 minutes. But it\u2019s 22 episodes, and it\u2019s part of filling out the world more and more. We gave Nurse Julie a huge storyline early in the season, and Claire is an incredible actress, and that was such a fun episode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJulie became a patient herself in the episode, which featured a romantic storyline for her. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe more the show goes on, the more those supporting characters get opportunities to shine and to get dimensionalized,\u201d Steinberg said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s part of the fun of the show, so we will see as things develop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPaulyne Wei on \u2018Doc\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the two-part Season 2 finale of Fox\u2019s Doc, \u201cStuck\/Happy Birthday.\u201d EXCLUSIVE:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[256104,236,76707,88,111216,256105,36738],"class_list":{"0":"post-584982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-blair-underwood","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-doc","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-felicity-huffman","13":"tag-hank-steinberg","14":"tag-scott-wolf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584982","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=584982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}